


Dalton Reformatory for Troubled Boys

by hufflebecks



Category: Dalton Academy Series
Genre: M/M, Reform School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28905942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflebecks/pseuds/hufflebecks
Summary: Dalton is a reform school. Set in my personal reform verse, set to the canonical timeline of CP's "Unforgettable", so will be following the relationship of Blaine, Logan and Josh, with all the other characters mixed in. Different in that I refuse to not have Micah and Shane there, so three new transfers instead of just Blaine.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Jude Whittaker, Shane Anderson/Micah Randall
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	1. New Beginnings

"Off to class, all of you," Ryan claps his hands, trying to shoo the last members of the house out the doors.

"We wanna meet the new boys!" Evan protests, his brother adding, "We'll be nice, we promise!"

"No," Ryan said immediately, shoving at them both, "Go."

Some grumbles followed, and finally, the house was empty. The only students not permitted to attend classes that morning were Ryan and George as they were required to give tours to the three new students who would be arriving shortly.

Ryan checked over the two upstairs bedrooms, ensuring they were tidy and no traps had been set by his fellow dorm-mates. David's room was spotless as usual, and nothing alerted Ryan to any problems there. He was sure Blaine would settle in fine, especially with David there to lend a hand. Up one floor, and Joshua's room was less tidy, some clothes left on the floor and the curtains still closed. Ryan quickly remedied these issues then went about checking for issues that might bother the younger boy, Shane. He removed the fake spider from under the pillow but was otherwise impressed that nothing seemed out of place.

Over the other side of campus, George was adding the second nameplate to a room on the second floor. "Micah Randall" now sat underneath "Terry Combs", officially welcoming the new student into the house. He had another half hour before he's expected to meet with Ryan in South and Main, so he sat down in the common room and began studying.

The half-hour went quickly, George's alarm alerting him to the time. He picked up the folder he had prepared and set out to meet with Ryan. Ryan was already waiting when he arrived, kicking a hacky-sack between his feet.

"Good morning," George greets, and Ryan looked up with a nod, "Hey Georgie."

"Don't call me that," George replied but Ryan just laughed in response, shoving the hacky-sack back into his satchel, "Ready?"

The two prefects entered South and Main together, soon finding the small gathering inside. Dean Ramsey stood with an older man and three teenagers, talking amongst themselves. Dean Ramsey smiled upon seeing the two seniors, bringing them into the discussion.

"Just in time, boys. This is Blaine Anderson," she introduced first, indicating the curly-haired sophomore. Ryan shook his hand and smiled, "Ryan Cobb, I'm your house prefect." George also shook hands with him and introduced himself, making sure to say that he would not be his prefect. The introduction repeated for Shane, the freshman brother of Blaine, and then for Micah Randall, to whom finally George got to introduce himself properly.

Dean Ramsey thanked the man who had driven the boys from the airport to the school and then directed the two prefects to take it from there while she saw the driver out. Each boy had a suitcase with them, pulling them along as they followed Ryan and George out of the building. Each younger boy was quiet, the only words spoken had been "Nice to meet you" in timid voices during introductions.

Ryan didn't blame them - Dalton was daunting when you first arrive. The buildings, the people, the schoolwork. It was a lot to take in, even for the more bold newcomers.

"We'll give you a general tour first," George says as he takes the lead, "Then Ryan and I will take you to your houses and show you around there." He paused to open the folder he carried, giving each boy a manila envelope. "That's your class schedule, a map, and a list of the rules. You'll be expected to follow the rules starting from now, but tardiness will be excused for just this week while you learn the layout. Don't show up too late though, or that kindness will be revoked."

George and Ryan let the boys leave their bags where they were, they'd be safe there and could be collected later. Then they began the tour which took well over an hour. Micah had taken his map out and was making some notes as they went, and Shane's tension began to leave over time and he began asking questions occasionally. Blaine remained quiet though, just watching and nodding but also keeping an eye on his brother and friend. Ryan and George both picked up on it, the way Blaine would reach to pull either of them back closer to him if they stepped slightly too far away.

When the tour concluded, the seniors took them back to their bags. Ryan said, "Alright boys, I'll show you around Windsor now. George, you'll be okay with Micah?"

"Of course," George said, matter-of-factly, pushing his glasses up his nose a fraction.

"You guys can catch up with Micah later," Ryan told the brothers, "We'll be joining the rest of the students for lunch so you will see each other then."

"You'll be alright," Blaine spoke to Micah, his first words in well over an hour, "Just give us a call if you need us. We'll come straight to you."

George was about to speak but Ryan shot him a look, and thankfully George listened and just nodded once. The boys would read the rules later, but for today they were just getting to know the place and were probably anxious about being away from each other. Shane and Micah hugged tightly until Blaine rested a hand on Shane's shoulder and said, "Come on, let's go."

Ryan smiled at the two boys he was now in charge of, then also gave Micah a reassuring nod. Micah didn't seem as nervous as the brothers did but it could possibly be just a brave face. Ryan walked Blaine and Shane across the campus again to Windsor, where he showed them inside for the first time.

"Welcome home," Ryan greeted as he opened the large double oak doors. "Do you want to see your rooms first, or have the tour?"

"Room," Blaine said at the same time Shane answered, "Tour."

Ryan chuckled and said, "Alright, how about a half tour while I show you upstairs then we can finish it. We have a while, there's no need to rush this. The elevator is out of service right now, so you're going to have to lug those bags up, sorry."

Neither brother looked too worried at this news - they had mostly clothes anyway, nothing overly heavy unlike what Micah had packed which was a lot of books and maybe three outfits.

Ryan spoke easily as he took them upstairs to the second floor. He pointed out the bathrooms and his own room which was near the top of the staircase. Unlike Stuart, there were no nametags on the doors but all but two had open doors anyway.

"We encourage open doors," Ryan said even though neither brother had asked, "It's not a rule to close doors during the day, but if you want actual privacy then you'll need to hang a Do Not Disturb sign on the doorknob though I'll be honest, that doesn't stop many of the boys here."

"You'll see in the rules list about making noise between 10 and 6, which is highly discouraged. You'll piss a lot of guys off if you're noisy." Ryan didn't think the two quiet boys would cause much trouble, but he's also seen the weird ones come out of their shells and be headaches for him, so time will tell.

"Blaine, this is your room. You have a roommate named David, he's cool. Bit high strung sometimes, but he's a nice kid and you'll get along. I'll introduce you to him at lunch."

"We're not in the same room?" Shane asked, looking confused.

"No, we only have two to a room and had no spares. You can hang out in other rooms all you like before curfew though, so I wouldn't worry too much," Ryan replied, hoping to ease the brothers' worries.

"It'll be fine, Shane," Blaine said to his brother quietly.

"Each bedroom has it's own small toilet room, but you're going to need to use the bathrooms for showering and stuff," Ryan continued as Blaine puts his bag down near the spare bed. Ryan had put out a couple of uniforms, which Blaine touched for a moment.

"Oh yeah, you have to wear those during school hours and you have to look tidy. There's a badge there, that's the Windsor pin, you gotta wear it as well." Ryan pointed to his own pin, where it rested on the left side of his blazer, "Each house has their own. Ours is blue, Stuart is red and Hanover is yellow."

"Do I need to put it on now?" Blaine said, indicating the uniform but Ryan shook his head and waved his hand, "Nah, don't worry about it today. You're gonna stick out no matter what, so enjoy your last day of fashion freedom. But tomorrow morning, it goes on. You can read about the uniform code in the papers George gave you."

Ryan then continued back out to the hall, pointing out a few rooms as he went then they headed up to the next floor. "Shane, your room's just here. Your roommate is Joshua and he's friends with David as well so I'm sure all four of you will be friends before long."

"What's Josh like?" Shane asked as he put his suitcase down.

"He's a happy dude," Ryan answers, "Damn helpful too, so don't feel afraid to ask him anything but also don't be afraid to tell him to shut up if he starts to bug you."

"Bug him?" Blaine asked, and Ryan got that feeling again about the older boy being protective.

"He just likes to talk, and sometimes doesn't know what his inside voice is," Ryan said, "Nothing bad."

Blaine shot Shane a look, a twinkle in his eye for a moment. Blaine figured Shane and Josh might get along, considering how much that sounds like his little brother.

"I don't need to show you the upper two floors, it's all the same - bedrooms and bathrooms. Let's go back down and I'll show you the rest."

* * *

Over at Stuart, George had just finished giving Micah his own tour and told him to put the uniform on and unpack. George then left him to it, saying he’d come and knock again just before lunch to bring him down to meet the other students. Micah sat on his new bed, trying to let it sink in that this would be his new home for the next three years.

He was glad that they hadn’t been separated, but they’re all now in a new state and the bullying might be just as bad here as it was at Stanton. Micah also hated that none of them got to see Jude one last time and that Erin and Becca wouldn’t able to find them if they needed to. Blaine had warned them on the flight over that they shouldn’t be public with their relationship for a while, to keep it on the low and not make it obvious that any of them were gay. “It would be safer,” Blaine had insisted, and both boys had eventually agreed with him.

Micah slowly unpacked his things; he folded his clothes neatly into the drawers. As he began to slide his books onto the bookshelf, he started to wonder more about his roommate. George didn’t provide much information, so Micah had to guess based on things in the rooms. There was a lot of books, and the desk had piles and piles of writing. Micah didn’t feel comfortable looking too closely, but they looked almost like scripts.

After he had finished unpacking, Micah put on the Dalton uniform for the first time. He’d never been to a school that required uniforms, but he had to admit to himself that this wasn’t the worst. It was comfortable, and there was enough customization that he could wear the blazer or the vest, as long as he was tidy. Micah pinned the little red badge onto his vest then sat down to read the information packet George had given him.

* * *

Ryan eventually left the two brothers to unpack and chat upstairs, making himself busy checking on the bird aviary just outside the back doors. He happily chatted with his birds, cleaning out the enclosure and giving them new seed and water when he heard a cough behind him. He almost jumped a foot, quickly closing the aviary doors as he backed out.

He turned around to see Blaine standing there, looking apologetic, “Sorry! It’s just uh, it’s almost noon.”

“Shit,” Ryan said and dusted his hands off, “Thanks, Blaine. Lemme just wash my hands and I’ll take you both down. Five minutes!”

Ryan brushed past him to head back inside, Blaine trailing after him until he was back with Shane, standing in the common room. Shane was tugging at his hoodie strings, still wide-eyed looking around at everything. The place was nice, much nicer than other schools they’ve gone to, and Blaine wondered how much it was costing someone to keep them here.

Maybe the school itself got paid to reform them.

“Sorry,” Ryan apologized as he returned to them, “Those birds can talk your head off, you know?”

“Birds?” Shane asked, having missed seeing Ryan at the aviary.

“Oh yeah,” Ryan said as he started to guide the brothers out the doors, “Most of the ones in there are all mine, but if you earn privileges, you may eventually ask to keep a pet. Small ones only, like birds, hamsters, that kind of thing. Big ones like cats and dogs have to be agreed on by the entire school, in case of allergies and stuff. We haven’t had a dog here in years, so nobody thinks about it.”

As Ryan walked them in the direction of the large dining hall, he kept talking, “You can read about it in the stuff George gave you, but you earn privileges pretty easy here. Join clubs, get good grades, don’t break rules. But as easy as they are to earn, you’re quick to lose them as well. I’m pretty lenient on my boys, but if I tell you to do something, I expect it done. The teachers and other prefects won’t let you get away with nearly as much, so be aware of who you’re around.”

Blaine nodded, already getting the feeling that Ryan was a lot nicer than George seemed to be. He didn’t worry about Micah though, Micah thrived on structure and would do well in that environment. He did wonder about the third house, Hanover, and what kind of people lived in there. The way George and Ryan had spoken, boys are sorted by personality more than anything else.

There was already a lot of kids around when they arrived, and Blaine moved a little closer towards Shane. People were looking at them, all the students knowing there were three new transfers and were wondering about them.

“They’ll get used to you pretty soon,” Ryan assured them both and walked them inside the building.

There were a lot of round dining tables, chairs sitting a lot of boys around them. Most of the room was full, everyone chatting and starting to eat. A line was waiting to be served their food.

“It’s not a rule that you have to eat in here, but the teachers like to see you socializing, and this is a good time and place to catch up with friends from other houses, so most of do it,” Ryan said, keeping a hand on each of their shoulders so they’d stay close together as he guided them through the other students towards the back of the lunch line.

“Do we pay?” Shane asked, “We don’t have money.”

“Nah,” Ryan said, “It’s all paid for at mealtimes. Outside of those hours, you can ask me to order food or go to the vending machines, which you’ll need to pay for. Or just ask to grab food from your dorm-mates, they might be happy to share.”

Ryan and the brothers join the back of the line, and Ryan taps the boy ahead of him and grins, “Sup, Mikey. You’re late today.”

The senior rolled his eyes and said, “Had to break up an argument on the way here.”

“Mine?” Ryan asked, but Mikey shook his head, “Nah, Nicky and Laurie were at it again.”

Ryan snorted at this then nodded his head to the brothers beside him, “Mikey, this is Blaine and Shane. Boys, this is Mikey, he’s the prefect of Hanover. Yellow badge, remember that.”

Mikey shook their hands and smiled, “Nice to meet you both, Ryan being nice?”

“Uh, yeah?” Shane replied, confused which made the two seniors laugh.

“Don’t be a jerk,” Ryan told his friend, “I’m always nice.”

“He is,” Mikey assured the new students, the group slowly moving down the line, “Don’t worry, Ryan will look after you both. How was ol’ Georgie today?”

“His usual unsmiling self,” Ryan answered truthfully, “You know that guy doesn’t like to be away from his precious studies. Are he and Micah already here?”

“Yeah,” Mikey pointed over to a table near the other side of the hall, “Sitting there. You gonna sit with them?”

Ryan nods, and they’re finally at their time to be served. He hands Blaine and Shane a tray each, “If we all sit together, my boys won’t have enough room to bother us.”

Mikey laughed at this and started to get his food, “You’re delusional, that won’t stop them.”

Ryan then took a few minutes to explain the lunches to the brothers; they can eat as much as they want, but it’s frowned on to waste food. There was always a big selection to choose from, nearly all of it proper and healthy so they’d be full.

Blaine was amazed - at Stanton, the canteen they would buy food from sold a lot of junk foods, like hot chips, hot-dogs, cookies and sodas. Blaine preferred to bring food from home, though Shane always liked to ask Marlene for money and he’d buy something. Here, he saw proper foods like roast potatoes, pasta bakes, stroganoff, and so much fresh fruit and vegetables. Shane was also wide-eyed at the sight, and the two prefects and two brothers filled their trays up.

Guided across the dining hall again, Shane and Blaine sat down on either side of Micah while Ryan and George sat beside each other next to George, who was busy reading a textbook while also eating with one hand.

“You can stop for an hour,” Ryan said as he closed George’s book for him, earning an angry protest.

“I hope you haven’t been ignoring Micah all morning,” Ryan then added, giving the boy in question a small smile. George scoffed, “I did my duty.”

Mikey laughed at this, reaching over and shaking Micah’s hand, “Mikey Campbell, Hanover prefect. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too, I’m Micah Randall” Micah replied politely. He didn’t have much food on his plate, not feeling overly hungry, unlike Shane who, if someone guessed purely by the amount of food on his tray, hadn’t eaten in days.

Ryan didn’t even get his first mouthful in before he felt a hand land on each shoulder, and he sighed audibly.

“No.”

“Yes,” came one voice from his left.

“We want to meet them,” came the second from his right.

Mikey just looked on in amusement, waving to the identical twins, “Hi boys.”

“Hi Mikey,” they greeted at the same time, their eyes sweeping over the three newcomers. They saw immediately which two were the new Windsors, and which was the new Stuart and they grinned.

“There’s no room,” George protested, but Evan and Ethan quickly nudged the new kids closer together so they could be bookends on the bench, effectively ignoring the Stuart prefect.

“I’m Ethan,” one of them said, the one right beside Shane.

“I’m Evan,” the other announced, “Welcome to Dalton Academy.”

“Thanks,” Blaine said, a bit alarmed.

“You don’t wanna sit with these guys,” Evan told Blaine, voice cheerful, “They’re old and boring.”

“Come join us and our friends over there,” Ethan pointed to a table a few away were a few other students sat - all of them looked around their age, so not seniors like the prefects.

“Boys,” George gave a warning, “Until the end of the lunch period, we’re in charge.”

Again, ignoring the prefect, Ethan smiled at the youngest of the three, “Which one are you?”

“Shane,” Shane tried to sit himself up a little taller, look a little more imposing.

“So this must be Blaine,” Evan said, and at the same time they both said, “And the middle one is Micah.”

“Good job on the brain cells today, boys,” Mikey said with a laugh, and Ethan grinned at him, “Thanks, Mikey.”

Evan went to pick up Blaine’s tray but Ryan reached over and put it down, “Not today. Classes end in a few hours and you’ll get to meet them properly, let them settle first. Go on, back to Wes and David.”

Evan and Ethan sighed but got up, waving at the three newcomers again before heading back the way they came.

“It’s always them,” Mikey said, still sounding amused by it all. He didn’t have any new students, nor much going on in his house at all so allowed himself to be entertained by the happenings in the other two houses. “You warned your boys about the house yet, Ry?”

“Not yet,” Ryan admitted which made Blaine sit up more, frowning at the two. “What?”

“Oh, it’s just that all the chaotic students go to Windsor,” Mikey grinned, “All the nerds go to Stuart - sorry Micah - and the good kids come to me.”

“That’s not true,” George argued, having reopened his book at some point.

“How would you put it then, Wong?” Mikey quipped.

“Stuart gets the smart, hard-working students; Windsor gets the students who need a little more help focusing, and Hanover gets all the ones who need sanctuary.”

Blaine, Shane and Micah were looking between the house prefects, trying to follow along. Ryan saw this and laughed a little, “Look boys, don’t worry. Yes, students get put in houses for specific reasons but there’s no black or white reasoning to it. I have Windsors that would be much better suited in Hanover and Stuart, and I know of a couple of their boys who would be better with me.”

“Like David,” Ryan continued as he looked at Blaine, “Your roommate. He’d thrive in Stuart, but it’s more beneficial for him to be with us in the blue, helps him relax a bit. And one of Mikey’s boys, Wesley - that’s a Windsor boy right there, but he was quiet when he first arrived, so they put him in there by mistake.”

Mikey kept his mouth closed at that - that wasn’t the reason Wes was a Hanover, but he was sworn to not talk about the actual reason. So he just nodded.

“Windsor’s a little crazy sometimes, I’ll admit that,” Ryan said, almost finished with his meal, “But for the most part, it’s safe there.”

“There’s no bullying,” Mikey added, seeing a flash of fear in Blaine’s eyes, “That isn’t tolerated at all, no matter what house you’re in. Arguments will happen, but nobody is allowed to lay their hands on another person or it’s straight to Dean Ramsey.”

“Well….” Ryan adds, “We try to solve it with the prefects first, of course. So if you ever have problems, find one of us and we’ll do our best to work it out.”

Blaine wondered for a minute why each of those three seniors had come to Dalton themselves. He knew it was a school for troubled teens, but it could be that they were trouble makers, or they needed to lay low for a while to be safe, Dalton seemed to accept both types.

The discussion kept going between the six of them over the lunch period, including pointing out David, Joshua and Terry. Blaine had caught eyes at one point with another tall blond, sitting two tables over who was in a discussion with his friends, one in a letterman jacket instead of a blazer and the other wearing sunglasses indoors, no blazer or vest to be seen. The blond was staring back at him, and with a smirk, he winked, and Blaine immediately looked down, face turning red.

Only George had noticed, glancing over to see who might’ve given Blaine such a reaction. He saw Logan looking, and raised an eyebrow at the sophomore, who copied the gesture then returned easily to the conversation with his friends.

Once the warning bell had rung, the boys cleared their trays and began to leave. “Well, this is where our tour ends,” Ryan said, “George and I are expected back in class. You guys have to head back to the dorms until classes end, but if you want to all just crash in Windsor, I don’t mind.”

“Ryan,” George warned but Ryan cut him off, “For god's sake, Georgie, it’s their first day. Let them be together for a while, it’s not going to cause any trouble, and that’s why I said in Windsor, not Stuart.”

“Fine,” George agreed, straightening his tie, “But I’m expected Micah back at Stuart after the last bell.”

“He’ll be there,” Ryan agreed then shooed George off, turning to the three younger students, “Heard that, Micah?”

“Yes, sir,” Micah said quietly. Ryan chuckled and motioned towards Windsor, “Go on then. Last bell is at 3:25, so you all have until then to catch up.”

Ryan saw them off and headed back to class himself. Blaine, Shane and Micah wandered back to Windsor together, the first time being alone since arriving at the school that morning, all of them feeling overwhelmed and just wanted to sit quietly together.


	2. Getting To Know Everyone

“What’s your house like?” Blaine asked once the three had returned to Windsor and sat down in the common room together.

“It’s big,” Micah says, “I’m on the top floor.”

“There are five floors here,” Shane said, “Ryan didn’t even show us the top two cause they’re bedrooms.”

“Do you think you’ll be okay there?” Blaine asked Micah, who answered, “It seems alright, there’s a little library and study area on each floor, I’ll probably just spend all my time there. Have you guys read the rules yet?”

“No, should we?” Blaine asked and Micah nodded, “Yeah, there are rules about not being in other houses without permission from the prefects.”

Shane frowned at that, but Blaine was quick to note, “Ryan seemed okay with you being here though.”

“For today,” Micah pointed out, “George didn’t seem very happy about it.”

“Fuck that guy,” Shane protested but Micah reached over and took his hand, giving him a weak smile, “Shane, it’ll be fine. We just need to keep out of trouble until we can be trusted.”

The three then discussed their schedules, which Shane felt left out because he had been put back with the freshmen instead of keeping up with them as he had at Stanton. When he’d first heard about it, he’d been upset and had argued but everyone had agreed that the school work at Dalton was a lot harder than at Stanton, and Shane would struggle. Blaine and Micah also might have a hard time, to begin with, but their previous test scores kept them in with the sophomores. Being only two weeks into the new semester, they wouldn’t take very long to catch up.

Blaine and Shane gave Micah a tour of their rooms upstairs, then Blaine decided to go back down to his own room for a bit, give them a bit of space before Micah was expected back at Stuart.

‘I already hate it here,” Shane confessed, sitting on his bed beside his boyfriend.

“This is the only good option we have,” Micah reminded him, “Or I’ll be sent to live with family, and you and Blaine would be separated. Blaine would end up in juvie, you know that.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like this place,” Shane pointed out. Micah tried to smile at him, but Shane didn’t return it, so Micah put his forehead against his and said quietly, “We’ll get through this, together. You, me and Blaine, that’s all we have now.”

Shane closed his eyes, hands gripping tight to Micah’s new red vest, “What if we don’t get a lot of time together?”

“Then it’ll make the time we do have more special.”

Shane let out a trembling sigh before Micah closed the last inch of gap between them, giving him a long kiss. After everything that had happened between them, it was hard to find a moment alone, and Micah worried about that affecting their relationship.

“I love you, Micah,” Shane whispered, and Micah smiled despite the sadness in his voice, “I love you, too, Shane.”

* * *

An hour later, in which the two boys just continued to talk and go over the papers George had given Shane, Blaine knocked back on the door and said, “You better head off, Micah, it’s quarter past already.”

“Yeah, okay,” Micah said and stood, still holding Shane’s hand. Shane looked to leave with him, which Blaine allowed down to the front doors then he put his hand back on Shane’s shoulders and said, “He can make his way back, we should stay here.”

“I want to go with him,” Shane frowned but even Micah shook his head, “It’s fine, Shane.”

Unable to argue against Micah, Shane just crossed his arms unhappily but said nothing more. They shared one last kiss, then Blaine smiled at his friend, “Let’s meet up early before classes tomorrow, we can catch up first - say, around 7 near the cafeteria? We can grab a table early.”

Micah nods, “Sounds good. See you guys tomorrow.”

“Bye, Micah,” Shane said, watching as Micah turned and headed towards the hill that’d take him up to Stuart house. Once he was a distance away, Blaine lead Shane back inside with a few minutes to spare before the final bell went off, indicating that classes were now over.

It was time to meet their dorm-mates officially for the first time.

* * *

“Harvey will kill you if you miss Warblers,” Charlie was trying to tell a few of the boys who were happily ignoring this fact.

“He’ll understand!” David argued, and even Drew was grinning with his arm around Satoru’s shoulders, “Come on Charlie, you’re excited too.”

“I am not,” Charlie rolled his eyes, “I don’t particularly care about having to deal with more crazy in our house.”

“Oh please, you’re the cause of half of that crazy,” Joshua laughed and dodged out of Charlie’s way before he got swatted at.

“Not this year,” Charlie said, “I’ve been reformed.”

There was a chorus of laughter, and even Charlie cracked a smirk, unable to keep the facade up for long.

“Besides, they pushed Warblers back until four today, so we have plenty of time to meet the new boys properly and still make it on time,” David said.

Charlie just shrugged, no argument to have there as they finally got to Windsor. He’d caught sight of the brothers in the dining hall at lunch, sitting with the prefects and the Stuart transfer. Hard not to notice when the brothers hadn’t been wearing the uniform - something they rarely ever saw outside of the dorms. Despite all three having dark curly hair, he could tell which were the two brothers, especially since the third boy was taller with glasses, and a slight lighter in shade than the other two.

Ryan had beaten them inside, along with some other students who were milling around the common room. Ryan stood beside Blaine and Shane, introducing them to students as they came in, a few seeming unbothered by the newcomers but were being polite enough.

“Here’s trouble now,” Ryan warned Blaine and Shane then beckoned over the group who’d just arrived. “Come say hi to the new kids.”

“Oh he’s cute,” Josh said with a grin as he looked at Blaine, who lowered his head quickly, cheeks turning red. Beside him, Shane clenched his fists, ready to defend his brother if the teasing continued.

Charlie did successfully manage to swat Josh’s arm this time, “Shut up, dude. Sorry, Josh never knows when the shut his mouth.”

Shane frowned at this - could this be Josh, his roommate? He wasn’t sure what to think, but didn’t like how he’d made Blaine react just then.

“Charlie Amos,” Charlie introduced, nodding at the two boys. No hand shaking, which Blaine was glad for - he was sick of shaking everyone’s hands. He nodded back, “Blaine Anderson. This is my brother Shane.”

“Cool,” Charlie said then put a hand on his friends’ heads as he went around and said their names, “David, Josh, Satoru, Drew.”

“Sup dude,” Drew greeted when it was his turn, holding out a fist towards Shane who returned the gesture with a small smile. Drew then said, “All good, Rye?”

“All good, you heading off?”

“Yeah, Warblers soon. Gonna go over something with Sat first.”

Ryan eyed the two young scientists for a moment then said, “No explosions.”

Satoru just beamed at him, causing Ryan to roll his eyes and add, “At least open the windows first, if I hear a single complaint from Luke again-”

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Drew waved the warning off, the tugged at Satoru and they departed for the stairs, wanting to make good with the time they have before Drew has to leave.

“Shane, Josh is your roommate,” Ryan indicated back to Josh who waved happily, “And David is yours, Blaine.”

David offered a fist bump to Blaine as Drew had to Shane, and he returned it.

“Nice to meet you finally, you’re all we’ve talked about today,” David admitted.

“Why?” Blaine asked, confused and a bit alarmed.

“We like new kids,” David shrugged. Blaine thought he looked kind, there was nothing malicious about him even though his words gave him some worries.

“No Tweedles?” Ryan asked, and Charlie laughed at this, “Nah, detention.”

“What now?” Ryan seemed exasperated but before anyone could answer, he waved his hand, “Nevermind, I don’t want to know; less trouble for me.”

“Tweedles?” Shane asked.

“The twins you met at lunch. Evan and Ethan Brightman, but they like to call themselves the Tweedles.”

“Why?”

Charlie laughed at this question and said, “Why indeed. Alice in Wonderland obsessed - a bunch of us have names, it’s kind of their thing.”

“Charlie here is the Queen of Hearts,” Josh teased, leaning into Charlie who shoved him with a grumble.

“Josh is just jealous that he has to be the Mock Turtle but his baby brother gets to be the Gryphon,” David supplied helpfully, looking amused, “I’m their Mad Hatter.”

“Does Ryan have a name?” Blaine asked, but Ryan shook his head, “Not important enough, apparently.”

Charlie smirked, “Sounds about right.”

“Shut up, Amos,” Ryan snapped but there wasn’t any real tension in the conversation.

“Anyway - you’ll meet them again later, no chance of that not happening,” Ryan continued, bringing the brothers back into the conversation, “Along with the other mad ones that live here. David, Josh, how about you head up and get to know the boys?”

“Oh! They can go watch the performance!” Josh was suddenly excited, almost bounding on his feet.

“Warblers?” Blaine asked, and Josh grinned at him with sparkling brown eyes, “You’ll see. Alright, come on roomy, let’s go back to our room.”

Josh was leaving the common room before Shane could even speak, and he stuttered a moment before shrugging at Blaine and began to trail after his new roommate. David just laughed and said, “You alright coming back up with me, Blaine? I wanna freshen up a bit before I head out, you can ask me questions if you want.”

Blaine nodded, and Charlie and Ryan stayed behind to chat as David lead Blaine upstairs at a more normal speed.

“Did Ryan say about the elevator?” David asked and Blaine said, “He said it’s not working right now.”

“Never works,” David admits, “We kind of busted it last year and it hasn’t been fixed.”

“Isn’t that a safety concern?” Blaine wondered, then inwardly cursed himself for sounding so dorky. But David didn’t even laugh, he just nodded, “It is, but nobody needs to use it right now. Only one kid needs it but if we ever need to bring him down, we just carry him.”

Blaine was about to ask what that meant - if the kid ever had to come down? - but they’d arrived at their room and David had opened the door and kept talking, “My friend Wes comes over all the time, if you join us for the performance, I’ll introduce you to him.”

“So we can go between houses? The rule book-” Blaine started.

David cut him off, “Hanover’s are okay to go anywhere, for the most part.”

“What about Stuart?”

David gave Blaine a look and said, “You need permission for them.”

“Oh,” Blaine was confused again, frowning. David turned back to his things, busying himself, “They’re not nice to us, and we’re not nice to them. I know your friend is a Stuart, so it might be okay for now but it might be best to do all your meetings with him in the common areas outside of the houses.”

Blaine felt a moment of fear again, not for himself but for Micah and Shane. David sounded like a rational guy, so hearing it from him made Blaine believe it right away, whereas Ryan seemed a lot more casual about the houses mixing.

“Look, don’t stress,” David was finished getting himself ready and sat on his bed, looking at the other boy, “You’ll learn the way we do things soon. Like I said - if you have questions, just ask me. Windsor boys look out for each other no matter what, you’ve got a whole set of friends and protectors in here.”

“What about Micah?” Blaine asked.

“Is Micah your Stuart friend?”

Blaine nodded.

“Stuart will look after him, don’t worry. They look after their own, just as much as we do here,” David said and the gave Blaine a kind smile, “Come on, you can watch our show.”

Blaine followed David out - they were early but David liked to show up before performances so he can warm up properly since a few of their songs had him and Jeff taking on the bigger dance moves. Josh and Shane were still upstairs, Josh ditching his shirt, tie and blazer for a more casual graphic-tee. Josh was trying to find out what Shane liked though they didn’t have a lot in common. Shane loved dancing, while Josh was more of a singer. But they both did soon realize that they share the love of the outdoors, and were soon talking about camping trips they’ve both had.

Josh almost lost track of time, but Drew knocked on his door on the way out and said, “Dude, bring the new kid to watch us, I’m running later.” so Josh sprang up and motioned for Shane to follow, “Let’s go!”

The three headed out, joining a bunch of students who all seemed to be talking excitedly about the upcoming performance. Drew jogged on ahead, but Josh remained with Shane, both of them walking quickly. More students were out of uniform now, so Shane didn’t stick out as much as he had at lunch.

Shane spotted Blaine soon enough and the three stood together amongst their new schoolmates near an outdoor stage, wondering what they were about to see. Shane tried to find Micah in the crowd but couldn’t before the music began.

Blaine looked forward and there were a group of students, all singing and dancing in harmony with each other. He spotted David and Drew pretty quickly, as well as recognizing the tall blond twins from the lunchroom. Blaine and Shane stood in shock - the singers weren’t only good, but they had the whole school dancing and cheering at them. Blaine watched in amazement when he locked eyes on the other blond from the lunchroom, the one who had the red pin and who had smirked at him. The lead singer caught his eye, and the wattage of his smile immediately increased.

Blaine found himself blushing immediately, but couldn’t look away from the green eyes on his.

“This is amazing,” Shane breathed out beside him, breaking Blaine from the eye contact. Josh grinned as he shook Shane’s shoulders a little, “This is the Warblers, it’s our acapella group! They’re incredible, I’m hoping to join them this year!”

The song faded and another began, and the same singer took the lead again, though this time the dancing was more of the focus. David did a back-flip at one point, and Blaine found himself laughing and clapping along, swept up in the joy of it all. He also couldn’t take his eyes off the lead for very long and caught him getting a few glances back as well.

Eventually, the performance did end, and the crowd erupted into cheers. The boys poured off the stage, jostling each other around in happiness, a few of them clapping the lead on his back and offering congratulations.

Blaine, Shane and Josh talked amongst themselves, all sharing the same level of excitement that the rest of the school did. Josh was glad to see the two brothers look happy for the first time and was about to tell them as much when he looked up with a grin.

The lead singer had come straight over to them, his fluffy hair swept away from his face as he sipped from a water bottle.

“Enjoy the show?”

“Incredible,” Josh spoke first, “You blew it away.”

Logan gave Josh a kind smile then focused more on Blaine, “You seemed to like it.”

“I did,” Blaine admitted, trying to keep his voice even, “You sing so nicely. Uh, all of you do.”

The tall boy laughed at this, but it wasn’t unkind or teasing, “Well thank you, I’m sure to pass that along to everyone. I’m Logan Wright.”

“Blaine Anderson,” Blaine replied then after a nudge from Shane, he stuttered, “Oh, uh, this is my brother Shane.”

Logan finally looked at the younger person in the group and smiled at him politely, “Nice to meet you.” Logan looked back at Blaine and nodded once, “I need to get going, but I hope I’ll see you in class tomorrow, it was so nice meeting you, Blaine.” He nodded once more to Josh, who beamed at him and gave a wave.

Logan departed back towards where the other Warblers were, and all three watched him go.

“He’s amazing,” Josh broke the silence first, and Blaine found himself nodding for just a moment before he reminded himself to stop being so obvious. He can’t act this way around other boys, that’s how rumors start and it won’t be long before the bullying will begin.

One cute boy can’t be their downfall, not on the first day of school.

“You said you wanted to join them?” Blaine asked Josh who nodded, “They have auditions in a few weeks, they have a couple of spots open. My brother and I are both going for a spot. Are you interested, too?”

“Maybe,” Blaine admitted, “I want to settle in first, it sounds like the school work is going to be a lot, and we’re already behind.”

“I’ll help you,” Josh grins, draping an arm around both Shane and Blaine, walking between them slowly back towards Windsor, “I scrape by.”

“Don’t let this guy tutor you,” A voice sounded, and Blaine looked over to see a boy with a red pin on his blazer, headphones around his neck that he could hear was blasting music.

“Oh be quiet, Bay,” Josh said then to Blaine and Shane, “This is my brother Bailey.”

“You’re in Stuart?” Shane asked. He didn’t think siblings were split up, though he wasn’t sure why he’d think that. He couldn’t imagine being put in a house away from Blaine, especially if either of them were put in Hanover and all three were split up completely.

“Yeah because he’s a” Josh paused to give air-quotes, ““Child genius” so they put in in Stuart with the other nerds.”

Bailey just laughed, not taking offence, “Nice to meet you both. I saw your friend earlier - George has got him going over books and notes, so he’s probably not here.”

“It’s okay,” Blaine said, “We’re going to catch up with him before class tomorrow.”

Bailey and Josh talked together for a few minutes, just about classes and school stuff before Josh finally said, “Alright, I’m taking them back to Windsor. See ya later, Bay.”

“Bye,” Bailey smiled, looking so kind that both Anderson’s smiled back at him. The shorter boy put his headphones back on, turned and left. Blaine, Shane and Josh returned back to Windsor.

* * *

Blaine and Shane stayed up in Shane’s room together for a while, Josh had gone downstairs to admittedly gossip with his friends where the newcomers wouldn’t hear.

“I think they’re cool,” Josh says, “Cute, too.”

Remy laughed and shoved at him, “You’re going to scare them away, you realize that right? Not everyone is okay with that.”

“Then that’s their problem, not mine,” Josh said proudly, “I see a cute boy, I can’t help myself. Shane's probably straight though, but you should've seen the way Blaine was looking at Logan today."

"Pot, meet kettle," Satoru deadpanned.

"Yeah, there's no way you stopped looking at Logan long enough to notice where Blaine was looking," Remy pointed out, "I think you're just projecting."

Josh protested, "Oh please, I'm not that obsessed. Yes, he's hot and I'd love to sneak into Stuart and-"

Remy held up a hand, "No more."

Josh just chuckled then continued, "But yes, Blaine was looking at Logan like he was seeing snow for the first time."

"And Logan?" Satoru asked.

Josh shrugged but then admitted, "Logan was interested, I think."

"Oh, poor Joshie," Remy teased, leaning against his friend in mock comfort, "The love of your life has fallen for the new kid."

Josh rolled his eyes but forced a smile, "That's not true, and he's not the love of my life."

"Oh right!" Satoru grinned, "The love of your life is the great outdoors."

Josh smiled right back at him, "You got it. I don't need a cute boy."

"You were JUST saying you can't help yourself around them!" Satoru said, making Remy laugh.

"You both suck," Josh grumbled though not unhappily.

"Do you know their story yet?" Remy asked, "What made them and their friend come here?"

"Nah, haven't asked yet," Josh says, "It's only their first day. If I don't know by the end of this week, we can start bribing Ryan."

Satoru adds, "Or Han, he'd know."

"Creepy fucker," Josh said and before the speaker could even crackle behind him, he called out, "No offence, Han!"

"None taken," the voice over the speaker said.

"Besides," Josh continued, "We'll have a big clue tonight when we kidnap them."

"Ryan says-" Satoru began but Remy cut him off, "Ryan says a lot of things, but he won't put a stop to it. It's a tradition! He's not going down as the prefect who broke tradition."

They began talking about their own initiations into Windsor, and how even though at the time it was terrifying, it was part of what made them Windsor boys. Blaine and Shane needed to experience it as well. It wasn't often that two transfers arrived at the same time, so they've had to talk over the plan for a few days to ensure it goes smoothly.

Eventually, the Warblers came back in, a lot calmer now that they'd had time to relax and cool down. Remy immediately took Reed up to their shared room on the third floor, wanting to go over some new pieces that had come in that morning from his parents, and Drew and Satoru also rushed back off to their own room, knowing Ryan would be hot on their tails soon to enforce "quiet time".

Josh was happy to stay with the group downstairs, going over the plans for the night once more. They were all confident it’d go without a hitch, even with the unpredictability that came with not knowing why the Anderson’s were there. Ryan hadn’t explicitly forbidden them yet, which means that the new boys wouldn’t end up dead from fright, or murdering them all one-by-one. Those were genuine worries sometimes, and now the reason why the Windsor prefects now are privy to why transfers and freshman are there, especially after Marcus’ panic attack on his first night, where he ended up in the hospital to be observed and then transferred to Stuart shortly after.

“Marcus is a big baby, that’s all,” Luke rolled his eyes, “Even being in Stuart hasn’t calmed him down.”

“Not the point,” Ryan pointed out, having joined them at some point. “Just don’t go too over-the-top tonight, okay? It’s about the party, not the scare factor.”

“It’s kind of about the scare factor,” Colby points out, “Toughens ‘em up.”

“These two have been through a lot, and no, I won’t say more,” Ryan says. “Anyone going too far tonight will be given bathroom duty for a month.”

There were groans and protests, but nobody seemed to outright fight the decision so Ryan soon clapped his hands, “Homework, go on.”

The boys all departed, winding down for the evening until the main event of the day would begin that night.


	3. The Party?

It was long past sundown and the Windsor boys had all returned to their rooms. Nobody was asleep though, filling in the time with homework or reading. Only Joshua and David were keeping quiet - both Blaine and Shane were asleep, exhausted after such a long day. The group chat was active, all of the main students involved in the upcoming initiation were buzzing with excitement.

**David** : Blaine’s fast asleep. No snoring, so Sean owes me $50.  
 **Josh** : Shane JUST fell asleep, wanna wait a bit for him.  
 **Ryan** : We have plenty of time, no need to rush.  
 **Charlie** : So Blaine first instead of Shane, we’re swapping that?  
 **Josh** : Best too.  
 **David** : Yeah I don’t mind.  
 **Ryan** : You still up, Han?  
 **Han** : Of course.  
 **Ryan** : Alright, keep us informed about anyone on the grounds.  
 **Han** : I know the plan, leave me alone until then.  
 **Josh** : Grumpy gills.

Han didn’t respond, so the boys continued chatting until it was closer to 11:30. David whispered out, “Blaine?” a couple of times but got no response, so he sent one final text, “Ready”.

David got off his bed, quietly slipping on his shoes and jacket, opened his door and waited for the others. Evan and Ethan came in first, their footsteps so light on the carpet that even David strained to hear it. Evan held up the pillowcase with a grin, David giving him a thumbs-up as the three crept closer to the bed where the new kid slept. The other Windsor’s waited in the hall, only Josh missing who had to stay up with Shane.

“On the count of three,” Ethan whispered.

“Three,” Evan held up a finger.

“Two,” Ethan continued.

“One!” David yelled, the twins launching onto the sleeping boy, trying to wrestle the pillowcase over his head.

Blaine yelled, immediately going into fight mode in panic, desperately trying to get away from the people attacking him. The twins lost their hold on him, though Blaine remained blinded as he flailed his arms around, trying to find anything to right himself. What he found was David’s lacrosse stick, leaned up against the wall. Still panicking, Blaine grabbed it and using all his strength, he swung the stick.

It connected right into the side of David’s head, narrowly missing colliding into Ethan as well.

“FUCK!” David yelled, stumbling back and falling to the ground. The others rushed into the room then, Charlie flicking on the lights. Blaine ripped the pillowcase off his head, still wielding the stick and backing away from everyone. He looked terrified, his skin pale and he was almost vibrating from shock.

David was curled up on the ground, clutching his head and groaning in pain.

“Whoa, calm down,” Ryan held out his hands towards Blaine, trying to show that he and nobody were going to attack him further. They hadn’t thought Blaine would fight back like this - kick and twist maybe, but not find and use a weapon.

“Ryan, I think David’s gonna pass out,” Colby says, crouching with Remy beside the prone boy.

“Shit,” Ryan cursed, “Sit him up, I’ll take a look.”

”What’s going on?” Blaine sobbed, back against his wall and trying to keep away from them all.

“It was going to be your party!” Evan replied.

“It’s our initiation tradition!” Ethan added. Neither were smiling now, the plan had gone south.

David was sitting up now but leaning heavily against Remy, a small trickle of blood making its way down his temple but even in the dim light, they could see the large bump above his ear. David did look close to passing out, he looked as pale and shaky as Blaine.

Charlie approached Blaine, holding out a hand and said, “Give me the stick. Nobody is going to hurt you anymore. We’re sorry, we didn’t know you’d be so scared.”

Blaine was reluctant to give up his weapon - it was the only thing keeping him safe right now and he definitely didn’t trust these guys.

“We’re not doing it now,” Ryan declared, glancing over at Blaine before he helped stand David up, “We need to get David to the clinic.”

“But the party,” Evan started but Ryan glared at him, “We can do it in the day time. Charlie, get the stick off Blaine and calm him down. Remy, help me out here. Colby, can you go up and tell Josh and Shane what happened please.”

“Shane,” Blaine breathed out, frantic again, “Don’t do this to him.”

“We won’t,” Charlie promised, not mentioning that they had planned on it. Blaine didn’t need to know that. “We’ll bring him to you.”

Colby and Drew both headed upstairs to alert Josh and Shane, while the others stepped aside to allow room to get David out. Charlie didn’t manage to calm Blaine down very much before Shane was rushing in, and the two brothers hugged tight.

“What happened? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? I’ll kill them.” Shane was speaking so fast, trying to both pull Blaine further from the others but also check him for signs of injury.

Blaine shook his head, still shaking and managed to assure his brother, “I’m okay, I’m not hurt.”

The Windsor boys knew that Blaine was the older of the two, but at that moment, Shane was the protective one. Josh wondered once more why they had transferred there, but he wasn’t going to ask right now, especially when Shane turned to glare at them all.

“What the fuck did you do to my brother?” He demanded.

“Hey!” Ethan held his hands up in defence, “We were trying to take him down to the party.”

“He’s the one who attacked David,” Evan added.

“David deserved it,” Shane declared despite not knowing the full story.

“Okay, enough of this,” Charlie sighed and began to shoo the boys out of the room, “Go back to your rooms, there’s no party happening tonight. Give them some room to calm down.”

There were grumbles, but nobody was really protesting - some were more worried about David than missing the party. Charlie remained until everyone but the brothers were left, and gave them a long look before saying, “We are sorry, Blaine, we didn’t think you’d be so scared.”

“It’s okay,” Blaine said softly but Shane shook his head, “No it’s not. Fuck off, dude.”

Charlie shrugged and left, closing the door behind him.

Once they were alone, Blaine finally sank back down onto his bed, dropping the lacrosse stick. Shane kicked it away and sat beside him, demanding to know the full story which Blaine gave. It made Shane angry that they’d all try that, and he figured they had likely planned to do the same to him too.

“Don’t feel bad,” Shane said, “They deserved it.”

“David is nice,” Blaine tried to explain, not feeling the same anger that Shane felt, “I didn’t mean to hurt him that badly. What if we get expelled?”

“I’ll cover for you,” Shane said, fists clenching, “I’ll tell them the truth, that they tried to hurt you.”

“I don’t think they wanted to hurt me, Shaney, I think it was hazing.”

“That’s what they called it at Stanton!” Shane all but yelled, “It wasn’t hazing then, and it’s not hazing now!”

Blaine closed his eyes, leaning against the wall and taking a few moments to calm down. They sat in silence for a while, replaying what had happened.

“Stay with me tonight,” Blaine asked, “Please?”

“Of course,” Shane nodded, “I won’t leave you alone with them.”

Shane set up a small nest of blankets on the floor by the bed, the lacrosse stick beside him in case any more trouble came their way. Blaine eventually got back to sleep somehow, but Shane was awake until very late until the anger finally faded and he slept at last.

* * *

At the clinic, the boys gave a story about David tripping and hitting his head on his bedside table. Nurse Summers didn’t believe them but it was the middle of the night and she was too tired to interrogate them further, having been woken up to help David. Nurse Summers dismissed Remy and Ryan, gave David some painkillers and monitored him as he rested on a clinic bed. He had a pretty nasty bump and a mild concussion, so she wrote a note signing the sophomore out of classes for the day.

Ryan sent Remy back to bed after they returned to Windsor, then he peeked in quietly into David and Blaine’s room. The brothers hadn’t noticed him, too busy talking to each other so Ryan left them to it, knowing they’ll have to do more damage control in the morning.

It took a bit of time to get the rest of the house quiet, and Ryan went to bed very late though he knew he would’ve been out later if the party had gone on as normal. He wasn’t sure when they’d reschedule in the party, but they did have to have one - no breaking tradition even if it’s slightly altered.

* * *

The next morning, students in the house began waking up to their alarms. Party or not, they had to be in class and that included the new kids. Josh had to turn off Shane’s alarm, which had been set a lot earlier than he’d wanted to wake up but he knew there was no way he was going back to sleep, so he started his morning prep.

Blaine’s alarm went off, and both Anderson brothers sat up fast before realizing it wasn’t any danger. Blaine reached out and shut it off, blinking the sleep from his eyes before looking down at Shane who was moments away from laying back down and sleeping more.

“We gotta get ready,” Blaine reminded him, only getting a tired mumble in response.

“Micah will be waiting,” Blaine prompted and stepped off the bed, stepping over his brother. Nobody was else in the room, so David hadn’t returned during the night and that made the guilty feeling come back. Blaine went and then returned from the bathroom to find Shane sitting up with his eyes closed, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“Shane,” Blaine prompted more, nudging Shane with his feet, “You gotta go, I don’t have your uniform. I’m not going to be late on my first day.”

“Fine,” Shane yawned then opened his eyes properly, taking a few minutes to actually wake up while Blaine started to gather his things to get dressed.

By the time Blaine had returned from the bathroom, dressed in the uniform for the first time, Shane had left the room and gone back upstairs. That surprised Blaine, who figured that Shane would still be too angry at the other Windsors’ to trust them to be separated even if just for ten minutes. Blaine used that time to go back over his schedule and the map, trying to work out the best way to get to his first-class without being late.

By the sounds of things out in the hall, other students were awake and moving around even though there was a couple of hours before the first bell rang. It did make sense - everyone lived there, so they had to eat breakfast and get ready, and if they were anything like Blaine and Shane, they might want to socialize with friends.

Blaine was a lot calmer after last night’s problems, though he still caught himself looking over at the lacrosse stick or David’s bed, feeling almost sick with guilt. It reminded him of after attacking his father, of sitting on the curb outside their house, Micah and Shane sobbing in pain and fear, and Blaine almost passing out from the shock.

“Blaine?” Shane’s voice broke him from his thoughts, and he snapped his head over to the doorway. Shane was dressed in his uniform, going with the blazer rather than the vest, the blue pin catching the light. Blaine smiled a little at him, going over and rustling his hair.

“Let’s go, I’m sure Micah’s already there.”

“Good,” Shane agreed, “I want to get out of this stupid house.”

Blaine nodded in agreement and the two left the room. Blaine kept his head low, not making eye contact with anyone. Even those who wouldn’t have seen what happened, probably have heard by now and were probably all judging him for hurting one of their own. Luckily nobody stopped them and they left Windsor.

Blaine was right - Micah was already there when they arrived outside the dining hall. He was alone, fiddling with his phone but not actually doing anything with it. If he were more comfortable at the school, he’d have been reading a book instead, much like he used to do at Stanton all the time.

“Micah!” Shane greeted, giving his boyfriend a hug. Even though other students were around, Blaine didn’t tell them off. A hug between friends were fine, right? It could be easily defended if anyone questioned them.

“I fucking hate that house,” Shane declared, making Micah frown and look to Blaine to ask for clarification.

“Let’s eat first,” Blaine sighed, guiding the two boys into the dining hall.

While they ate, they discussed what had happened the night before. Shane was still angry, and Blaine still guilty, but Micah did a good job on calming them both down. He had been confused at first, but he then told them that even George had told him that Stuart also throws parties for the new kids, they just do it in the day time and give a warning first.

“I don’t think they were trying to hurt you,” Micah told Blaine, “If they were, the teachers would protect the new kids right? Since everyone goes through it.”

The discussion about it filled up the entire breakfast time, and the only good that came from it was Shane was a bit less worked up by the time they had to get to class. Blaine and Micah were actually looking forward to class, to get focused into schoolwork and not think about anything else for a while. None of them were bothered by any other student who came in for breakfast, though they did have people looking at them.

“I’m going to go find my class early,” Micah says after clearing his tray, “Can we meet up again at lunch?”

“Of course,” Shane frowned as if there were any other option, “Here?”

“Sure,” Micah nods and gives Shane a smile, “Please relax, just focus on school.”

“I’ll try,” Shane agreed then Micah looked at Blaine, “You too, it’ll be okay.”

It was such a change to the day before when Blaine was the one reassuring them that everything was going to be okay. All three looked after each other, much like back at Stanton when they were all being bullied, including Erin and Jude.

Micah left, and soon Blaine was shooing off Shane as well, wanting him to get to class on time as well. Shane demanded that Blaine call him if anything more happened, and Blaine promised to do just that but he doubted much will happen.

Within a minute of Shane walking off, someone tapped Blaine on the shoulder and he turned around quickly his heart racing. He was expecting a Windsor, waiting until he was alone to get him back for hurting David, but instead, Logan was standing there, his hair gelled back away from his face.

“Hey,” Logan smiled at him, “I almost didn’t recognize you in the uniform.”

“Oh,” Blaine took a breath of relief, “Thanks.”

Logan tilted his head a little, “Are you alright? Were you expecting somebody else?”

“No, no,” Blaine shook his head, “I just- I don’t know.”

Logan put his easy smile back on and said, “You have math first, right? Let me walk you to class. I assume you’ll be tired after last night’s party.”

Blaine stared at the ground as they began to walk, “There wasn’t a party.”

“Oh?” Logan was surprised, “Normally they do this whole stupid thing, it’s ridiculous really.”

“They uh, they did try,” Blaine admitted, not wanting to admit to Logan how he over-reacted so he left it at that, and hoped Logan would drop it too.

No luck.

“What happened?” Logan sounded so genuine and kind, and Blaine glanced at him as he wondered if Logan could be trusted or not.

Finally, he said quietly, “I hurt David.”

Logan snorted for a moment then tried to school his features back to normal but a smirk still remained, “Oh yeah?”

“I hit him with a lacrosse stick. I didn’t mean to, I was just scared!”

Logan smiled at him, “Don’t worry, David’s probably had worse. Those jackasses deserved it - we’ve had a couple of people transfer out of Windsor because it gets crazy in there and they don’t know what boundaries are. Stuart and Hanover hold day parties.”

“Micah said that,” Blaine felt relieved that Logan wasn’t upset or worried, and that he hadn’t over-reacted that much by fighting against it.

“Yeah, we’ve scheduled Micah’s party for Friday,” Logan says then seemed a bit sad when he added, “Unfortunately it’s a no Windsor party. Also, no Hanover's, so don't take that wrong, the parties are a way for the new students to get to know their dorm-mates.”

“It’s okay,” Blaine said, “Parties aren’t really my thing anyway.”

Logan and Blaine were approaching the classrooms now, other students milling about and talking in the halls. Logan glanced at his watch before saying, “I better head off, but this is your first class here. The teacher is nice, he’s even happier if you ask questions so try to do that at some point.”

Blaine nodded, glad for the heads up then asked, “Do you think people are going to be mad at me?”

“For hurting David?”

“Yeah.”

“Nah,” Logan chuckled, “Those idiots probably love you more for defending yourself. They’re all backwards. I’ll do you a favor though, I’ll ask around about David for you so come see me at lunch and I’ll let you know how he’s doing.”

“Thank you,” Blaine managed a small smile, “I’ll see you later.”

Logan nodded and walked off. Blaine took a deep breath and opened the classroom door just as the bell rang.


	4. First Day of Class

Classes were a lot harder than all three thought, even with the warnings they were given. Teachers were strict, even the kind ones. Even Micah, who generally enjoyed being challenged, felt overwhelmed by the time the final bell rang. Blaine sent Micah a text, apologizing that he and Shane won’t be catching up with him in person but they both had stacks of work to do. Micah was relieved, he had more time to focus on catching up.

Almost as soon as Micah entered Stuart, someone whistled and looked at all the books, folders and papers Micah carried.

“Damn, they really loaded you up, huh?”

Micah chuckled a bit, trying not to let the stress show as he nodded, “Yeah, I don’t even know how I’m going to manage this.”

“We have a tutor in this house,” the boy said, and Micah finally looked at who was talking to him. He blinked then began to ask, “You’re…”

“Julian Larson, yeah,” Julian shrugged, “Do you want me to ask Riley if he can help?”

“Uh,” Micah shook his head to clear his thoughts then said, “Thanks, but I’ll try it on my own for now.”

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Julian told him. His sunglasses rested on top of his head, and even though class only got out less than ten minutes ago, he’d already changed out of his uniform and into a comfortable sweater and colored jeans.

“Thank you,” Micah said politely, giving him a small smile. Julian didn’t stay long, heading back upstairs. Micah followed at a more casual pace, arms starting to hurt from all the things he was carrying. He made it to his and Terry’s room, dumping it all on his bed with a sigh.

Terry wasn’t there, meaning Micah could sit down and study in silence for a while.

And study he did.

He didn’t lift his head until Terry returned a couple of hours later, breaking Micah’s flow of concentration. Micah looked up from his papers and nodded to his new roommate. They got to know each other the day before though Micah didn’t go into the whole story of why he was there - Terry didn’t ask and Micah wasn’t open to admitting it freely yet.

“Oh hey Micah,” Terry waved at him, “How was your first day of classes?”

“It was alright, just have to catch up a bunch.”

Terry laughed, “Oh yeah, I remember that. Be glad you came in this early into the new year, I transferred a few months in and it was a nightmare. If it wasn’t for Riley, I probably would’ve had to repeat freshman year.”

“Julian mentioned Riley,” Micah pointed out and Terry grinned, “Oh, you’ve met Julian then?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think this kind of school would, uh, you know?” Micah stumbled over his words.

Terry just laughed, sitting behind his desk and started to look through some of his scripts, “Yeah, I know. You’ll get used to him soon enough. He helps me sometimes with my scripts, so don’t be shocked if he’s in here sometimes.”

“You’re friends?”

Terry shrugged, “I guess so, yeah. Drama kids gotta stick with drama kids, you know?”

Micah smiled politely, though he wasn’t sure if an actual child actor could be classed as just a normal drama kid.

“Sorry, I’ll let you get back on with it. Make sure you eat something soon,” Terry reminded him. He was always having to remind Riley to eat and figured Micah might be stressed and would forget otherwise. Micah thanked him and they both went back to their paperwork.

Micah gave up around seven, his eyes starting to hurt. He’d put a considerable amount of effort into all the work but it still felt like there was weeks worth of catch up to do, so there was no point going on without a break. Terry had slipped out at some point without Micah noticing, off to meet with his friends for a meal.

Micah went downstairs, knowing it was now too late to get a proper meal at the dining hall so would have to make do with what was in the kitchen. The Stuart’s had been kind to him - they all had little lockers in the large kitchen, and some boys had contributed some food for Micah until he could find a way to get his own. He wasn’t sure how exactly he’d earn money to get food, but he’d make a note to be more careful about meal times so it may never need to be a worry.

There were a couple of students in the kitchen, the smell of coffee filling the air. He’d been told by George that the coffee pot was always going, and it was the life-blood for a lot of the boys in the house. Micah enjoyed the occasional coffee but he wasn’t feeling it right now so he started to check out what was in his locker.

He was about to choose some pasta when someone said, “Hey Micah, you can have some of this if you want.”

Micah looked over and saw two of the kinder boys, Bailey and Nick, smiling at him. Bailey was pointing to a potato bake that was half gone but clearly recently made.

“Oh, it’s okay-” Micah started to say but Nick waved that away and grinned, “Come on, it’s so good. I worked really hard on it.”

“Okay,” Micah finally agreed, and Bailey served him up a plate. It really was delicious, and Micah hadn’t realized how hungry he’d been until that first bite. Bailey and Nick brought him into their conversation about music and while Micah didn’t have a whole lot to contribute, the conversation was relaxed.

Despite all his worries, so far it was nice being at Dalton. People were nice to him and he felt safe enough, although he worried that may not last very long. Blaine and Shane had had a bad first night, and the way the other students talked, there was a rivalry between the two houses for a reason. He hoped, at least for his own sake, that it was because Windsor had no boundaries and it wasn’t because of anything his own house had done.

Micah wondered if Blaine and Shane could transfer to Stuart as well, then they’d also feel safe. He mentally filed that thought away to ask George about later.

Micah cleared up his dishes after he’d finished eating, although he knew it’d be rude to leave yet so he sat back down with Nick and Bailey.

“I’m just saying,” Nick was waving his hands around as he talked, “If I can get Logan on board, maybe Harvey will cave.”

“I just don’t see Logan liking that kind of music,” Bailey countered.

“If I play it around him, maybe it’ll enter his psyche and he’ll learn to love it!”

Bailey snorted at that, “We’re going psychological warfare now? I think he’ll just smash your iPod and make George ban it from the house.”

Nick pouted, “I just wanna sing it for Warblers.”

“Maybe you and Jeff can just sing it for practice?” Bailey suggested, “You guys do that, right?”

“I guess,” Nick nodded, perking up a little at the suggestion, “I’d rather sing it than Logan anyway.”

Bailey laughed, clapping him on the back, “There you go then, problem solved. I better get some homework done or Murdoch’s gonna have my head.”

Nick groaned, “Me too. You have Murdoch too, right Micah?”

“Uh,” Micah blinked, “What one is he again?”

“Literature,” Bailey answered.

“Yeah but I didn’t have that today,” Micah said. Literature was the class he was looking forward to most. “It’s my second class tomorrow.”

“Ugh, good luck,” Nick said, giving him a look of sympathy, “He’s the strictest teacher in this place, and that’s saying something. He’s probably not going to like you for a while, he takes a while to warm up to new students.”

Micah’s shoulders slumped a little. The one class he was excited for, and the teacher sounded horrible. Bailey caught his reaction and offered a small smile, “Just stay focused, answer the best you can and try not to argue his points.”

Even at Stanton, the English teacher liked when students would debate her on topics and Micah liked to do so, so this would be something new. He was much less excited for class now.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Bailey said, “Good luck.”

Micah nodded, “Thanks, see you later.”

Nick and Micah stayed chatting while Nick cleaned up until Micah politely dismissed himself, wanting to get some more catch-up work done before he was too tired.

* * *

Logan had caught back up with Blaine at lunch and reported that David was fine, just being watched for a concussion but was already resting back at Windsor. Blaine didn’t know how he’d be able to face David again after last night, and they had to live in the same room together. After the final bell, he kept delaying going back there until Shane had grown impatient.

“Just stay with Josh and me,” Shane declared, “And I’ll make Ryan change your room.”

“No, it’s okay,” Blaine finally said as they rounded up to Windsor. He checked his pocket-watch that his grandfather had gifted him last year, “I’ll just keep my head low.”

“Hey White Rabbit,” came two voices at the same time, and both Anderson’s looked up in surprise. Blaine was sure that neither twin was there a moment ago, but they now leaned against the door frame at Windsor, matching grins. Blaine immediately tensed and Shane’s fists clenched beside him.

“We wanted to apologize,” Evan said.

“For last night,” Ethan clarified.

“We didn’t think you were a fighter.” They both spoke again at the same time.

“That makes it better!?” Shane was annoyed, “You’re all assholes!”

The comment didn’t bother the identical boys at all, in fact, their smiles grew as though proud of such a comment.

“Well thank you, Little Bat,” Ethan said casually, “That’s what we aim for.”

“It’s nice to know we haven’t lost touch,” Evan chuckled, giving a fist-bump to his brother.

“You’ve named them both already?” Another voice asked and Josh walked over from inside the house to stand beside the twins, “That has to be a new record.”

Josh turned to smile at the brothers, and his smile at least wasn’t menacing. “Ignore the Tweedles, they’re mad. Let’s go inside and talk about last night, clear the air a little.”

So the five went back inside Windsor and found a place to sit in the common room. The twins almost immediately lost interest in the conversation and were trying to play with Blaine and Shane’s curly hair, despite the hands batting them away.

Josh went on to explain the tradition properly, and that Blaine wasn’t the first to fight back and won’t be the last. He assured the boys that it wasn’t bullying, that they were going to throw them a party in their honor and that’s how they welcome every new kid into the house.

By the time he’d finished explaining, both Anderson brothers had relaxed a little. Josh had a strong conviction, which added to his charm, meant it never took much to convince someone of something. The Tweedles had piped in once in a while, but they were much less helpful.

“So David’s not angry?” Blaine asked.

“Nah,” Josh laughed, “He’s fine. He and Wes get into fights with Derek a lot, he’s had a lot worse.”

Blaine had no idea who Derek was, but vaguely remembers being told about David’s friend Wes who came over often. It eased his mind, even more, knowing he wasn’t about to be given payback, and that the whole thing was blowing over.

“We’re still throwing you both a party,” Evan said.

“Tonight. But no kidnapping this time,” Ethan added. He looked sad about that - it was his favorite part.

“We have so much school work,” Blaine started to say but Josh laughed, “And you still will tomorrow, so enjoy yourself for a night. As I said, it’s how you’ll both meet everyone and ease the tension.”

“There will be drinks,” Josh added, wanting to prepare the two now, “It’s against campus rules but Windsor likes to play its own games. But also a lot of non-alcohol as well, cause some boys here don’t drink.”

Blaine hadn’t had his first drink yet, but he knew Shane had. Shane and Micah had gotten into Bart’s liquor cabinet a few times, so he knew he had to keep Shane from drinking tonight even if all the other Windsor boys thought it’d be okay. Shane was too easily tempted by things like that.

Evan was about to say something when David and Wes walked into the common room, Wes carrying a motorcycle helmet under his arm. David spotted Blaine and immediately grinned.

“Hey, Blaine!”

“Uh, hey,” Blaine felt the bubble of anxiety build up again despite being assured multiple times.

“And Shane,” David said politely, “Twins bothering you?”

“He’s named them,” Josh dead-panned.

“No shit!” Wes exclaimed, “What are they?”

“White Rabbit and Little Bat,” Evan and Ethan said proudly.

“Little Bat?” David raised an eyebrow, “That’s not a character.”

“You sing it!” Evan protested, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat!”

David rolled his eyes but he looked amused, “Okay weirdos. Blaine, can we talk for a minute?”

Shane spoke up then, “Not without me.”

Wes snickered but Blaine shook his head, looking at his little brother, “It’ll be fine, I’ll be back. Why don’t you take your books up to your room, I’ll meet you there soon.”

Shane reluctantly let Blaine leave with David. A second later, the Tweedles were dragging Wes onto the sofa, trying to wrestle with him despite his loud protests, causing Shane to leap out of the way quickly while Josh laughed.

“I heard you were worried I was angry at you,” David said to Blaine as they walked towards the stairs, “I’m not. It hurt, but we all know the risks of the initiation when we plan it, and it’s why only some of us do it. We’re not going to make someone like Reed or Todd do the kidnapping party.”

They’d made it up the stairs, David still doing all the talking. “No hard feelings from me.”

Blaine was quiet for a moment before saying, “No hard feelings. It’s just, after my last school…” he trailed off.

“Had it rough, huh?” David asked. This was the first time any of them had heard what may have led the three boys to Dalton. They’d already asked Han to look into it for them, see if he can dig up any reasons as well, but hearing first-hand accounts were always better.

“Yeah,” Blaine nodded, trying to keep his voice level. Jude popped into his mind and he had to blink away some upcoming tears.

“Sorry,” David said, the boys entering their room together. David was in his sports uniform and started to get changed, not caring that Blaine was there. “We didn’t know you’d been bullied. I’ll let the others know to not take it too far with you and Shane.”

“Thank you,” Blaine was looking out of the window that overlooked the school grounds, “We just want to keep out of the way.”

David snorted, “Unfortunately for you, the twins just gave you a pretty high ranked name so you’re not going to avoid much attention.”

“What’s up with them, anyway?” Blaine asked, immediately feeling rude for asking it but David just laughed.

“The twins? Oh, they’re trouble. Their parents are billionaires, and basically let them get away with everything their entire lives so they have no concept of self-control, or patience, or anything really. They only stay at school here because they like being around their friends, otherwise, there’s nothing except their sister who could reign them in.”

“Are they… dangerous?” Blaine asked.

“Yeah,” David was fine admitting that, “But they’ve been tame at school for the most part since they like it here. But if you ever want alcohol or drugs, they’ll hook you up.”

Judging from the reaction from Blaine, David said, “Not your kind of thing?”

“No,” Blaine said.

“Good,” David smiled, “Stay away from that shit, don’t let them convince you or your brother to do anything you don’t want. They’ll probably ask a few times but just keep saying no and they’ll stop eventually and move on.”

Blaine felt a lot better because of the talk since David really didn’t seem mad or even hung up on what happened at all as if it were just an everyday occurrence for him to be concussed. He was dressed now into casual clothes and motioned for Blaine to follow him back out of the room, “Also don’t worry about all the book work, I’ll help you out when I can.”

“Ryan said you had really good grades,” Blaine followed him.

“Yeah,” David admitted, “This year is a little harder than last but I like a challenge.”

The two teenagers went back downstairs, where Wes had successfully pinned one twin on the ground while the other was trying to tug him off. David chuckled, “How’d that happen?”

“I’m smarter than they are,” Wes declared which made Josh snort. The non-pinned Twin used that moment to shove Wes off his brother, and they all got off the floor, laughing. Shane was no longer there, so he must’ve taken Blaine’s advice and gone upstairs.

“Fought it out?” Josh asked. Blaine smiled a little as he answered, “We’re cool.”

“Told you,” Josh said, “No need to stress so much. Your brother’s up in our room.”

“Thanks,” Blaine said, waved goodbye to the group and went back up.

“Anything?” Evan asked David, straightening up his brother's hair.

“He was bullied at his last school, that’s all I got,” David said.

“So they’re all here for sanctuary?” Ethan asked, “Damn, I was hoping we’d get more scrappy kids.”

Wes rolled his eyes at that, “Your house doesn’t need any more, besides you’re not done tormenting Stuart yet.”

“We want more friends to torment them with us!” Evan said, “These guys chicken out all the time.”

“Breaking in and throwing firecrackers at sleeping Stuarts gets old,” Josh declared, “They’re gonna get a guard dog soon.”

“Is that not what Derek is?” Wes joked, and David snorted, “Shut up.”

The conversation switched to other topics for a while until Wes reluctantly left for Hanover. The motions were in works for him to transfer to Windsor, but it was taking a long time and until it was finalized, he couldn’t stay over even with Ryan and Mikey’s permission. The other boys departed ways, off to do their own things for a while. Upstairs, Blaine and Shane got stuck into schoolwork, helping each other out if there were questions but mostly just keeping each other company.

Josh had come in at one point but was quiet, putting his headphones on and studying on his bed. The party was due to start at ten when the staff were less likely to be prowling the grounds. Han had grumbled that he was fine with being the lookout the night before, but tonight he had a marathon he wanted to watch and was annoyed that he had to be “on duty”.

“Hey, Shane?” Blaine said at one point, his hand starting to cramp up from all the writing, “No drinking tonight.”

Shane nodded at first then gave a small smile, “What if I just have one?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Blaine told him quietly, “If the party gets busted, I don’t want you in more trouble. Something like that might get back to Mom and Dad, you know?”

Shane sighed but nodded again, understanding. It had been fun all the times he and Micah had gotten drunk, but Shane knew he tended to go overboard with it, and Blaine was right - they didn’t need to get in any more trouble right now.

It was getting later into the evening by the time the three boys gave up studying, and Blaine left for a while to go downstairs and get dressed. He would’ve rather stayed in for the night but wasn’t going to make any more bad impressions by refusing to attend his own party, and he knew Shane was looking forward to going despite his earlier anger at the other dorm-mates.

The house was almost buzzing with excitement by the time it was time to head outside, all of them waiting on Han to give the all-clear.

“How we looking, Han?” Ryan called out, and Blaine looked around to try and figure out which boy he was talking to. Then a speaker on the wall crackled and a voice said, “All clear. Larson and Paige are outside Stuart but on the other side.”

“Alright boys,” Ryan then grinned, “Party time!”

Colby opened the front doors, and the boys poured outside.


	5. The Actual Party

It didn’t take long to get a good-sized bonfire going, some boys cheering as the fire roared to life after Charlie threw a match into the tin can he’d filled with wood and gasoline earlier in the day. The alcohol came out next, though Ryan had put another senior in charge of distributing and keeping an eye on how drunk the students got, especially the younger students.

Shane and Blaine stood close to each other, not wanting to get split up this early into the evening. Shane was wearing his Stanton hoodie again, hands jammed into his pockets and wishing Micah was also there. He was glad Blaine was with him, but sometimes he was a buzz-kill where Micah tended to go with the flow and do whatever Shane suggested.

“Come get a drink,” Josh says to the brothers as he walks over, holding a solo cup.

“No thank you,” Blaine declined, “We’re not gonna drink tonight.”

“Not even one?” Josh waved the cup a little, trying to tempt them, “One won’t hurt.”

“Nah, not tonight,” Blaine said again. Josh nodded this time, “Fine, your choice. There’s plenty of soda and fruit juice as well. Hey! How about I introduce you to some people! I’m sure you haven’t met everyone yet.”

They hadn’t - the house had a lot of students, and they’d met only a handful of them so far. They’d seen some in passing, made polite hellos in the hall but mostly kept out of everyone’s way. Josh grabbed Blaine’s wrist with his free hand, starting to drag him along so Blaine motioned for Shane to follow as well.

There was music playing, but it wasn’t overly loud - any louder and one of the other houses would narc, or the teachers would overhear and shut them down. Remy and Reed were manning the laptop, given to them from Han to control the music for the night, and were in an argument about what music to queue up.

“Hey guys,” Josh greeted as he led the brothers to the table where Reed and Remy sat, “Have you guys met Blaine and Shane yet?”

“Not yet,” Remy said, “But we sure have been talking about them.”

Shane’s grip on Blaine’s arm tightened as he locked eyes with the smaller of the boys, who had curly red hair pinned away from his face and wearing an oversized sweater that hung off one shoulder. He had a bandaid over his cheek, and a wrist strap on his left wrist. Blaine looked at his brother in concern for a moment and whispered, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Which one is that?” Shane hissed back.

“How would I know?” Blaine countered, knowing they weren’t quiet and he felt rude for talking like this in front of the others.

Josh chuckled, “Mop-top here is Reed, bottle blond is Remy.”

“Hey!” Remy protested, “My hair is naturally white, thank you very much.”

“Reed,” Shane breathed out, and Blaine tugged Shane away from the others a short distance to say, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“He’s beautiful,” Shane said, “He lives with us?”

“Stop being so obvious,” Blaine narrowed his eyes, “And think about Micah.”

“You look at that red-house singer! And you’re not thinking about J-” Shane stopped himself, both freezing for a moment.

Blaine swallowed then said more calmly, “It’s not the same. Just… don’t act so stupid, okay? We have to be straight here.”

“Why?” Shane argued, even though he knew very well why they had to be back in the closet and knew Blaine was just trying to look after him but it didn’t mean he had to like it. 

“You know why,” Blaine sighed then stood a little straighter, “Just act normal for once. Come on.”

The brothers returned to the group who had been watching, confused. Josh had a smirk on his face though, looking at Shane with an interested look, “Welcome back, everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Blaine nodded, “Sorry. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Can you tell Reed that sappy ballads aren’t appropriate for a party?” Remy was looking at the brothers, “It’s not a wedding, we’re not going to slow dance with each other.”

“I like slow music,” Shane said, eyes still on Reed. Blaine knew it was a lost cause but at least he was being more subtle now.

“Oh come on,” Remy protested, “Blaine?”

“Uh,” Blaine looked between Josh and Remy then before saying, “I think more energetic music is better for parties.”

Josh laughed at this, “And I agree with that, so sorry Reed, you luck out.”

Reed didn’t look too disappointed by this, shrugging it off. He was avoiding looking at Shane, feeling almost preyed upon by the way he kept staring. It reminded him of how the Tweedles looked at him sometimes like they’re planning something that Reed isn’t going to be happy with.

“Anyway - Reed and Remy are both sophomores as well,” Josh continued the intros, “Reed’s in the Warblers too!”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Blaine smiled at him, “I liked the performance yesterday, you guys are really talented.”

“Thank you,” Reed was almost blushing, not used to having attention on him, and he wasn’t used to the new boys yet so he wasn’t as talkative as he normally was.

Remy started doing a come-hither motion towards Josh who laughed and said, “Remy’s family owns a whole bunch of jewelry shops, so if you ever want a piercing or necklace or whatever, he’ll hook you up. Reed’s family is fashion, so between the two of them, we all look very nice if we have to dress up.”

“We never dress up,” Remy groans, “This school is horrible. We can’t even wear earrings!”

The outrage on his face made Shane laugh, though he noticed that Remy had both earrings and an ear-cuff in so he clearly wasn’t too bothered about the rules - at least after class was out. Shane had noticed that most kids were quick to get out of the uniform each day, changing into their own clothes as soon as they could.

“Alright, I’ll leave you both, gonna keep showing these two around like show ponies,” Josh said, motioning for Blaine and Shane to follow after him.

Blaine went to move but Shane said, almost timidly, “I’ll stay here and chat awhile.”

Blaine raised an eyebrow at him and said quietly, “Don’t do this to Micah.”

“I’m just making friends!” Shane protested, a bit loudly but only the three others heard him, “I can do that, right? Or am I forbidden from that, too?”

Blaine gave him a long look then sighed, “Okay fine, but no drinking, remember?”

“Yeah, I know,” Shane grinned, and then let Blaine and Josh go while he stayed behind to chat with Remy and Reed some more.

“Your brother likes Reed,” Josh pointed out, very matter-of-fact as soon as they were a little distance away.

Blaine stuttered, feeling his heart start to beat faster, “What? No? Shane just likes making friends.”

Josh glanced at him with a smirk, “If you’re in denial, that’s okay. Reed’s cute, even I had a crush on him when we first met, but he’s too shy for my liking.”

“Y-you’re gay?” Blaine stopped walking.

“Yeah,” Josh shrugged, turning to face him, “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No!” Blaine didn’t want Josh to get the wrong idea, “I just… I didn’t know.”

Josh laughed, “You’ve been here two days, how could you have known? It’s not a secret and it’s not a big deal. There’s a whole lot of us who like guys, though most are into girls. There’s a girls school not far down the road, and there are always boys getting trouble for sneaking in there.”

Blaine could barely concentrate on anything Josh was saying, his head was almost spinning. There were openly gay boys at this school, who could talk in public about their crushes and not risk being beaten or locked up for it. Josh was watching him with a curious look, waiting to see if Blaine was going to say anything.

After a long minute of no speaking, Blaine finally spoke with a sob threatening his voice, “I was so scared.”

Josh just smiled at him and pulled him into a hug, wrapping Blaine tightly into his arms, “You don’t need to be, not here.”

Josh let Blaine cry into his shoulder for a while, standing there surrounded by other students who were glancing over but leaving them alone. Finally, Josh said, “There’s a lot of things here that you need to worry about, but liking boys isn’t one of them. Not a single person here will make you feel bad for that; we have each other's backs, and that’s not just Windsor boys either, the other houses don’t cross that line.”

Blaine pulled back and wiped his face, feeling relieved and exhausted at the same time. He hadn’t meant to come out to anyone, especially not in his first week at the school, but hearing Josh be so open and sure about himself, it just came out before he had a chance to think about it.

Josh was smiling kindly at him, allowing Blaine the time to compose himself and then asked, “I’m guessing Shane and Micah…”

Blaine hesitated. It wasn’t his place to speak for either of them, but then he knew that both hadn’t cared too much and were only keeping it to themselves for Blaine’s sake anyway, so he nodded once. Josh was about to say something more when Evan and Ethan arrived, sliding up beside the two shorter boys.

“The Turtle’s making the Rabbit cry a pool of tears,” Ethan said.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Evan added.

“Oh, please stop,” Josh sighed, “Not the time.”

“Are you okay?” Evan and Ethan asked simultaneously, looking at Blaine with a hint of concern. If they hadn’t have seen Josh and Blaine just hugging, they would’ve stepped in between the boys while they figured out what was causing Blaine to cry.

“I’m okay,” Blaine said, voice still uneven but he only sniffled now, no longer producing tears, “He was being nice.”

Evan and Ethan looked at each other for a moment, then back to Blaine with matching smiles before they pulled him into a hug as well, “We like to hear that!”

Blaine squirmed but found himself laughing anyway, his emotions all over the place. He found the twins confusing but their energy was definitely infectious and despite David’s earlier warning, he found them to be fun. Josh was soon pulled into the hug as well.

Eventually, Josh pulled Blaine from the hug, both laughing. Josh said, “Want to help show your White Rabbit around some more?”

“Boy, do we!” The twins grinned, and Blaine then had one twin holding each of his hands, and he met the other Windsor boys one by one.

Josh trailed back towards the drinks, pondering everything he just learned. The pieces were starting to add up more - the three newcomers had been bullied at their last school and were all into other boys, so things likely got too bad there and were sent here to be kept safe. It was an extreme measure but not unrealistic, though Josh wondered if there wasn’t another piece or two missing from the story.

He’d ask more in time, especially since he was living with Shane and getting closer to Blaine. He grabbed another drink and let his thoughts wander back to the party.

* * *

The party ended up being busted just after two in the morning when their house head Howard walked over the grounds and broke it up. He wasn’t too angry - this was a tradition, after all, he knew it’d be happening - but he still had to go through the motions of making them all clean up and go back inside. He didn’t even dish out any detentions this time, the headache of that much paperwork stopped him.

“Not a single one of you are allowed to call in sick for classes,” Howard told them all sternly, “And I will be checking.”

“Except Todd though, right?” Sean asked, “He’s sick in bed.”

“Okay, except Todd.” Howard agreed.

“And Han!” Drew smiled, “He doesn’t go to class.”

“Fine, Todd and Han. The rest of you-”

“What about if we wake up really badly sick, do we have to go then? You sure wouldn’t like that, Mr. Howard,” Colby pointed out, feigning innocence.

Howard pinched his forehead with his hands and said in a restrained tone, “Please go to bed.”

There was a chorus of laughter as the Windsor boys went upstairs, leaving Ryan and a few other seniors to finish cleaning up.

”No more parties,” Howard informed Ryan, “I hate being the bad guy here.”

“No more parties if you stop accepting new students,” Ryan pointed out, “You know how we do things, sir.”

Howard sighed but nodded, “Just… clean up and get some sleep, Cobb.”

“Yes sir,” Ryan grinned.

Howard left then, and it wasn’t too long before the house fell silent again, all the students back in their rooms. Blaine and David didn’t speak very much, tired after a long day so they said their good-nights and went to sleep. However, Josh sat up for a while, headphones on but not actually listening to anything. He kept glancing over at Shane, who was tossing around in bed and trying to fall asleep. Josh hoped the two brothers and Micah would eventually feel safer in this school, they seemed like nice kids and Josh was always happy to be making new friends.

When Josh had arrived at Dalton, he hadn’t known he liked boys. He didn’t like girls either, so had assumed that he hadn’t reached that stage of life yet. But then he’d met a student from Hanover, and he started to crush on him so hard that he felt sick to his stomach sometimes. It didn’t click for months that he might be gay until that boy had gotten a girlfriend and Josh realized he was jealous.

While that crush eventually ended, Josh’s realization about himself didn’t. Over his freshman year, he became much more comfortable with his thoughts and feelings, and knowing there were other openly gay boys at Dalton, he found himself coming out, too. It was so freeing, especially when everyone supported him. Charlie would later say that it was the worst thing to happen to Windsor because Josh, much like the Tweedles, would openly flirt with everyone and nobody could tell if he was joking or not.

Josh hadn’t had his first boyfriend yet, but over the last few weeks of freshman year, and a couple of weeks so far of sophomore year, he had Logan Wright in his mind more and more. Logan was another openly gay student, and it felt more theatrical and forbidden due to a lot of Windsor boys disliking the green-eyed blond from their rival house. To Josh, it was almost a game, but one he intended to win; he wanted to date Logan.

He just hadn’t found a chance yet and was hoping he’d get into the Warblers to spend more time with him. 

Those thoughts eventually sent Josh to sleep.

* * *

Classes the next day were a lot slower for a lot of the Windsor boys. The teachers were frustrated at how tired they all were and threatened a few detentions but none were actually given, and by lunchtime, most had perked right back up.

“Hey, Blaine!” David called out to him at lunchtime, “Come sit with us!”

Blaine looked over to see a group of boys; David, Wes, Josh, Evan and Ethan, all sitting together at one table. Blaine had been running late for lunch after talking to one of the teachers about an assignment he was struggling with, and most tables were filled up. Shane and Micah were sitting together with some other kids Blaine didn’t recognize, and there didn’t look to be any spare room there for him.

“You too, Dormouse!” Wes encouraged, and Blaine glanced behind him to see the boy from the night before, Reed. Reed looked just as stunned as Blaine at the invite, and he was giving Blaine a look that read ‘Please don’t accept’. But Blaine nodded instead and said quietly to Reed, “What’s the harm, right? They’re cool.”

The two collected their food and made their way over to the table. Before they could sit down, Reed stumbled and tripped, but Evan quickly shot out a hand and grabbed the tray, while Ethan caught Reed. Reed quickly righted himself, apologizing as his face grew red, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

Ethan laughed and scooted aside to allow both Reed and Blaine room to sit between him and Evan.

“You still drunk, little mouse?” Wes teased but Reed lowered his head, allowing his curls to cover his face. He didn’t like it when the boys teased him, even if it was joking.

Evan and Ethan almost squealed at the sight, finding Reed to be adorable. Luckily for Reed, the conversation quickly changed as David started telling the twins off for smelling like weed.

“It’s natural,” Evan said.

“If Charlie can like plants, so can we,” Ethan pointed out, a twinkle in his eye.

“I don’t think it counts if you’re just buying from Colby,” Wes points out, digging into some spaghetti and meatballs, “It’s not a plant at that point.”

“It was once a plant,” Ethan argued with Evan adding, “Besides, we’re doing Colby a service.”

Josh rolls his eyes but looks amused, having heard this before and continues before the twins could, “Oh right, because if Colby doesn’t sell to you, then Jake will steal it and Riley will be angry, and we’ll all suffer, right?”

“Right!” The twins beamed.

The boys at the table laughed, even though Reed and Blaine were barely following along. Reed was moving his food around his plate without actually eating, still avoiding looking at any of them. Blaine got the feeling that he wasn’t too comfortable being in social situations since he’d stuck pretty close to Remy and Shane all night during the party.

“So Blaine,” Wes says after that conversation died out, “How’s it like being in the madhouse?”

“It’s okay,” Blaine says, “I feel a little better now.”

Wes grinned at David, “If that’s all it takes, the newbies should beat you up more often.”

Blaine turned scarlet but David just jabbed an elbow at Wes, “Shut up, dude.” He looked to Blaine, “I’m glad you’re settling in. Shane looks more comfortable, too. After Drew and Satoru’s experiment blew up this morning, I was worried he was going to come rushing in and defend you again.”

“Sorry about that, by the way,” Josh chuckled, “I’ve tasked them with trying to make a smoke bomb. I think they’re focusing more on the bomb part of it.”

“It’s okay,” Blaine shrugged. He had been alarmed at the sudden noise that morning but was quickly reassured that it was a regular thing. He’d also been warned that none of the smoke alarms on that floor worked, and if either young scientist ever came out of their room after an explosion, best to hand them a fire extinguisher and let them get back to it.

Ethan was now trying to encourage Reed silently to eat, but Reed was batting away his hands.

“I have another question,” Wes said, still looking at Blaine, “What’s with the shoes?”

Blaine was still wearing his sneakers, the ones that his friends had all written on while they were at Stanton. He was aware that everyone else was wearing leathers, and he’d probably be written up for dress code soon, but he needed to wear them for a little bit longer as he settled in.

“Oh, my friends wrote on them,” Blaine said, “From my old school. My friend Erin brought me the shoes, and we were bored one day and wrote things. They’re special to me now.”

“Did you have a boyfriend back there?” Wes asked, sounding casual. 

Josh and Blaine’s smiles both dropped in that moment, and even Reed lifted his head. Blaine looked immediately at Josh, who shook his head as if to tell him that he hadn’t said anything. Josh had no idea that any of them were going to talk about that, or else he would’ve prepared Blaine first. The twins were now looking at Blaine with interested looks.

“What?” Blaine asked.

“At your old school?” Evan asked, and Ethan added, “….or a girlfriend?”

“Guys,” Josh started to say but Blaine spoke up, albeit a bit softly, “No, I didn’t have either. Not really.”

He and Jude never got that far before the incident.

“Don’t worry about it man, there’s still time,” Wes grinned, “Plenty of cute boys here.”

“Shut up, Wes,” David rolled his eyes, “You’re into girls.”

“Yeah and I’m so heartbroken after Saffy left, I might try guys for a while,” Wes bemoaned, acting dramatically but keeping an eye on Blaine’s reactions.

Josh said to Blaine, “I didn’t say anything, I promise.”

“You knew?” David looked to the brunette beside him, confused. He and Wes had talked for a while at the party and had decided to ask Blaine like this to figure out if their guess had been correct. The twins had overheard and wanted in, though Wes suspected it was because they might have crushes on Blaine themselves.

“I told him,” Blaine said quietly. He was trying to not let himself clam up, but he’d spent so long and so much energy in keeping his sexuality a secret that it felt wrong to be open.

“Damn, Tipton,” Wes whistled, “Why are you getting all the secrets?”

Josh shrugged but leaned back in his chair, a bit proud, “I’m just cooler than all of you.”

Wes shoved him, laughing then said to Blaine, “Hey, it’s cool. We like gay people.”

“And bi’s,” David added, glancing at Reed for just a moment before turning back to Blaine, “You don’t gotta worry.”

“I already gave him the speech,” Josh commented but Wes said, “So? You’re not the center of the world, maybe he’d like to hear it from other people, too!”

Blaine took a deep shaky breath but didn’t feel as emotional as last night. He still felt so happy that Josh had been right - people here were accepting, and it was okay to be open about it without fear of retribution.

“Are you guys….” Blaine started then cut himself off, leaving the question lingering.

“Nah, we’re both straight,” David said, indicating to Wes and himself “I’ve got a girlfriend and Wes likes girls too much.”

“Hey, I’m open to anything,” Wes countered but David raised an eyebrow until Wes chuckled, “Okay, maybe I like girls too much.”

Ethan said, “We’re into everyone.”

Evan added, “Life’s too short to be picky.”

Josh laughed and said, “There are more straight guys, but the ones who aren’t are cool with everyone. Really, you don’t have to hide at this school like you did your last one.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Wes asked, his tone becoming more serious as the topic darkened, “Because Josh is right - that won’t happen here.”

Blaine bit his lip the nodded, “Kind of. We went to a school in California and they used to… my friends and I were harassed every single day, the teachers did nothing. Sometimes we’d be the ones who got in trouble, we’d miss class because we’d be locked in closets or locker rooms, or because J-” Blaine took a breath, blinked away the mist in his eyes, “Because Jude would be too scared to go to class, so we’d sit with him until he was calm.”

“I’m sorry,” David said.

Blaine sniffed, “We uh, we tried everything to make it stop but it got worse.”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Josh said carefully. They’d all wanted to know, but seeing how upset Blaine was hurt, and they didn’t want to make him relive something bad.

“No, I should talk,” Blaine was staring down at his plate, food forgotten.

They all waited patiently for Blaine to collect himself, then he continued his story.

“Jude was bullied the worst, though we all had it bad. Most of the time the bullying stopped on the grounds, but they’d follow Jude around after school. His mom would try and pick him up when she could, but she worked full time and there was only so much we could all do to protect him.

“One day, uh…” Blaine closed his eyes for a moment, “A couple of months ago, just before summer break began, Jude was beaten so badly on his way home from school and he was taken to the hospital. He was going to die, that’s what we’d been told. We weren’t allowed to see him, he was in critical condition and the police were investigating.

“I was so scared. Jude was my best friend, and I felt like I’d failed him. I felt sick, and every day there was no news. We were all scared, you know? I was glad it was summer time, we didn’t have to go to school anymore. But we also had nothing to do to occupy our minds. I don’t know about the others, but I couldn’t stop thinking of Jude. We’d call his mom every day and ask how he was, and for a long time, there was no change. He was in a coma.”

Blaine was digging his nails so tightly into his palm until Evan reached over and took his hand, just holding it so Blaine would relax. He continued,

“We started getting into trouble. Well… Micah and Shane did.” Blaine didn’t want to tell everyone what the two had been doing in detail but he kept going with, “And Erin and her girlfriend started to get these scary letters in the mail. Mutilated photos and threats. They ran away a few times, but a couple of weeks ago they finally didn’t come back. I did get a text from them saying they’re okay, but they’re not coming back.

“Micah and Shane… they were caught by my dad, doing uh, stuff at home.” Blaine winced, that might have been revealing too much but nobody questioned it so he took another breath, “My dad started beating on them. He’d never done that before, but he was so angry. He used to smack us sometimes when we were little, and he’d yell, but he had never beaten us. But he was kicking them both and throwing them against the wall, and I couldn’t make him stop.

“So I grabbed the chair and I…” Blaine let out a sob, and Evan started to rub his back. Blaine could tell they were all looking at him, even with his eyes closed, “I hit him, and I kept hitting him. I just wanted him to stop hurting Shane and Micah. I was scared he was going to kill them. I got them out of there, and a few minutes later the cops came.”

“Fuck,” David breathed, the first word any of them had spoken since Blaine had started.

Blaine wiped his face and said, voice choking, “There was a whole lot of scary talks, of putting me on trial, and of Micah’s parents sending him to a conversion camp, and I think my dad wanted to send Shane there, too. My mom didn’t want that, she still cared about us so she brought up Dalton, said it’d straighten us out and we wouldn’t end up with records. I think dad only agreed because he’d get in a lot of trouble as well, for beating Shane and Micah.

“So we got accepted here and sent off. Jude…” Blaine sobbed again, “Jude woke up about a week ago but we weren’t allowed to see him. His mom wanted us too, but nobody would allow it. It’s the one thing I wanted, and I kept asking over and over again if I could just say goodbye, but we couldn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Wes said quietly, reaching over the table and resting a hand over Blaine’s free one, “God, I’m so sorry.”

Josh looked to the twins and tilted his head, giving them a long look. They nodded, Ethan getting up from beside Reed and he and his brother wrapped Blaine into another hug, this one a lot more comforting than the one at the party. There was no laughter this time.

David looked at Reed, who was crying quietly beside Blaine, and he stood up, putting an arm around Reed and leading him out of the dining hall to get some fresh air. The story had been upsetting, and David didn’t blame Reed for crying, since he felt close to crying as well though he also felt angry.

Blaine seemed such a sweet kid, all three of them did, and they didn’t deserve anything that happened to them. It also made David feel a lot more guilty for the initiation attempt the other night, realizing how terrifying it must have been for Blaine, so fresh from all that abuse.

David returned inside just as the warning bell rang. Josh, David and Wes cleared the table, while the twins took Blaine to one of the bathrooms to wash his face and calm down. By the time the next bell rang, the dining hall was empty and the students returned to classes for the afternoon.

Blaine had one of his new friends with him in each class, and all of them looked after him, being much kinder than they’d been until then. He felt drained and still upset, but there was a part of him that felt glad he was finally able to talk about it. 


	6. The Exams and Jude

After those first few days of adjustments, the three new boys were now expected to fit in with the rest of the school and really start following the rules. While he wasn’t written up for it, one of the teachers had told Blaine that he was no longer allowed to wear his sneakers to class. Blaine knew that had been coming, but he didn’t feel as sad as he’d thought he might, realizing they’d last longer if he weren't walking in them across the grounds every day. He was getting a lot closer to the boys of Windsor, especially David, Josh, Evan and Ethan, and that included Wes as well who was over so frequently that he’d sometimes forget he wasn’t a Windsor boy.

Shane had begun being told off for staring out the windows instead of paying attention, though he still struggled with not letting his mind wander all the time. It was hard not to when there were so many thoughts and the schoolwork overwhelmed him. He was beginning to make friends of his own though, kids in his own grade that were helping him catch up in class. A Windsor boy named Todd and a Hanover boy named Nicky were the most helpful, and they’d formed a small study group between the three of them. He was also becoming closer friends with Reed and Remy, who had welcomed him as their third after the party.

Micah was also coming out of his shell more - Terry was kind enough to invite him to drama club, and they’d debate literature for hours at a time in the evenings. Micah met Terry’s other friends, including Riley who he saw often around Stuart, but also the two Windsor boys named Colby and Isaac. After two weeks, Micah found himself settled into a good schedule and had caught up before he even realized it.

They’d been told about the entrance exams when they arrived, and those were now there. Each boy would have the morning to do the exams for each class, to determine where they were at and where they needed more help. If it was learned that any of them were having trouble in certain areas, they’d be tutored by other students until they could catch up, or their grade level would change depending on how poorly they did.

That had worried Shane, who was already a freshman and struggling enough as it was. He feared failing so badly but didn’t know what they’d do if he couldn’t pass. Would he be allowed to stay? Would they give him middle school work, with everyone knowing about it and make fun of him? He’d expressed these worries to Micah one day, so their time together each day revolved more around studying than focusing on their relationship. It wasn’t easy for either of them, Micah having to tell Shane off for wanting to cuddle instead of working but they both knew that Shane especially needed to do well, and they’d get back to normal after it was all over.

On the morning of the exam, Ryan walked his two students over to South and Main.

“There’s always plenty of time, so don’t worry about rushing. Just clear your heads and think about every answer and you’ll be okay. Nobody has ever gotten a perfect score, even the 98 percentiles - it’s all about placement and letting the teachers know where your strengths and weaknesses are.”

Micah and George were already waiting at the doors, talking to the teacher in charge of the exams. Ryan gave Micah a kind smile who returned it. He was feeling nervous but less so than the Anderson’s, especially after George assured him that he’ll sail through.

Micah, Shane and Blaine were patted down for anything that could be used for cheating, then given pens and papers and told to find a seat, George and Ryan being sent back to class. Each desk area had a partition surrounding it, and Blaine thought it looked a bit overkill to prevent cheating when the teacher explained, “To prevent students from using sign language to give answers.”

He went on to explain that the boys had everything they needed on the desks and would not be allowed up except for two bathroom breaks, and a 15-minute lunch break in which prefect Mikey would come in to give them food. They’d not be allowed outside until the exams had finished - at 3 pm or whenever they felt confident they were done, whichever came first.

Blaine gave Micah and Shane an attempt at a reassuring smile, but neither returned it. They sat down, and Shane immediately felt overwhelmed at just how much papers were in front of him. He’d not be leaving before 3 pm, and he realized that instantly. The teacher gave more instructions then sat behind his desk and said, “You may begin.”

* * *

The morning passed with no noises except pens on paper, and Shane asking once if he could go to the bathroom. He just needed to clear his head for a couple of minutes, splashing water on his face and shaking his legs out. The only other break was at lunch when they got to sit silently and eat, not allowed to speak to each other at all. The break felt too short, and they were back at it again.

In the afternoon, both Blaine and Micah also used one of their bathroom passes. Micah finished early but spent the remaining time going over everything multiple times, correcting things here and there. He didn’t want to leave early, it felt like bragging to the Anderson's and he also wanted to really be sure of his answers.

Blaine finished just before three, quickly hurrying the last few things but everything was answered though he didn’t feel overly confident about any of it. They’d been told that points would be taken off for every answer not given, and it was better to at least attempt to answer than skip it.

Shane, however, left a lot blank. Unlike Micah and Blaine, he liked to proof-read as he went. He’d finish a page and then go back through it immediately to see if it made sense, which meant that by the time the 30-minute warning was given, he still had a lot of work to do. He tried to hurry, but there was a lot unanswered in the end and he felt like crying when the teacher said, “Pens down now.”

The teacher collected all the papers, thanked the boys and then dismissed them. “You’ll get your results by the end of the start of next week.” And that was it - the exams were over and the boys could leave that oppressively small feeling room.

The moment they were outside, Shane said, “I did so bad, oh god, they’re going to kick me out.”

“They won’t kick you out,” Micah assured him, “George said nobody’s ever been kicked out for bad scores.”

“I did so badly that I’ll be the first,” Shane moaned, and despite all the stress of the day, Blaine smiled a little. It was very much like Shane to take the dramatics up a notch, but he ruffled his hair and said, “I’m sure you did better than you thought, you’re a smart kid.”

“No I’m not,” Shane protested and grabbed to hold Micah’s hand. Micah gave his hand a squeeze and smiled at him, “It’s over for now, let’s go get something to eat and forget it. Nothing we can do about it now.”

So they did. The normal classes weren’t out yet, so they got a few minutes to grab food and sit together in the courtyard, decompressing. Blaine and Micah had begun to talk about certain papers they both had to do, but Shane looked so miserable they dropped it altogether. Apart from Micah joining the drama club, they hadn’t signed up for anything else so they talked about what they might do.

“I still want to join the Warblers,” Blaine declared. The music teachers, Harvey and Medel had announced that auditions would be on the 22nd of that month, just a couple of weeks away. Blaine was already starting to prepare what song he’d sing, though he kept changing his mind even with David’s input about what sounded best.

“I’m thinking of also joining the school paper,” Micah said, “Todd’s been very convincing about it, and said they need more writers on the team.”

“That’d be great for you,” Blaine smiled at him then teased, “No sports?”

Micah scrunched up his nose, making Blaine and Shane both laugh.

“I’m not cut out for sports,” Micah said, “I think I’ll stick to the clubs. How about you, Shane? Are you still going to try for the dance team?”

Shane nods, “Yep, and I want to join the Warblers as well but dance is first for me.”

“Are they having auditions any time soon?” Blaine asked and Shane shrugged, “Tomorrow.”

“What?” Micah sat up a bit straighter, “Are you going to try then?”

“I think so,” Shane smiled a little, “I’ve been practicing in my room when Josh isn’t there. I didn’t want to tell you guys because you’d just tell me to focus on those stupid exams instead.”

Blaine was about to protest but Shane was right - he at least would’ve told Shane to put it off, that the exams were more important than joining the dance club. Micah, however, said, “I think you’ll do great, Shane. They’ll be glad to have you.”

Shane beamed at him, and the two shared a kiss just as the last bell of the day went off so they scooted apart a few inches and dropped their hands. All three were now out to the school, or at least the ones they’d made friends with, but they still didn’t feel comfortable being too affectionate in public. It’d been beaten out of them at Stanton, and old habits die hard.

While Micah was welcome to spend time with the Windsor boys, it was getting clearer that he wasn’t able to actually step into the building now. The same went for Blaine and Shane at Stuart, so most times they’d all hang out outside. It was Friday afternoon, and school was out for the weekend which made all the students happy.

A few even had permission to go off campus for a few hours, and that included Wes and David. David was going to take his girlfriend Katherine out on a date, so he was fussing around making himself look nice, while Wes mentioned he was going to hook up with a cheerleader from another school across town. The twins were teasing him, reminding him to “wrap it up, Wesley” and “Do you think she’ll do a banshee scream in bed, or is that only on the field?”.

Stuart wasn’t without its own events that weekend - Logan’s other best friend Derek was turning fifteen so the house was throwing a party for him to celebrate, and Micah had been invited. Mica had his own initiation party the weekend after Blaine and Shane’s, though he’d explained it a “more cocktail than rave” and had said he’d have much rather had a party like theirs but he’d still enjoyed himself.

* * *

Later that night, Blaine was lounging around in his room alone when Micah texted him, “I’m going to call Ruth tonight.”

Blaine sat up and replied quickly, “Can you let me know how it goes?”

“Of course,” Micah sent back.

Blaine felt a strong wave of guilt then - he hadn’t been in contact with Ruth as much as he’d wanted, with all the studying, it’d kind of gone on the wayside. He still thought of Jude every day, and Ruth would send him a few messages with minor updates which Blaine would share with Micah and Shane.

It wasn’t like the movies - while Jude had woken up, he spent more time asleep than awake, and barely responded to anything when he was more alert. They were running tests but there weren’t many answers apart from “Traumatic brain injuries are different for everyone.”

Micah stared at his phone for a long time before hitting the call button. Micah had texted Ruth a few times as well, but nearly all the communication was done through Blaine; Micah just wanted to hear from her about Jude, the stress of the day made him miss his friend so much more.

Ruth picked up on the fourth ring, “Hi Micah.”

“Hi,” Micah whispered, “I’m sorry, is this a bad time?”

“No, it’s okay sweetheart,” Ruth sounded like she was tired but smiling, “I told you boys to call any time and I meant it. Is everything alright, you don’t normally call.”

Micah felt that same guilt that Blaine was feeling, but he shoved it aside and said, “I’m okay, I just wanted to see how Jude was.”

There was a pause and Micah felt sick for a moment until Ruth answered, “He gets better every day. I’m sitting with him now, he’s resting but he was awake for a few hours today.”

Micah closed his eyes to not allow any tears to spill, but his voice sounded broken as he whispered, “I miss him.”

“So do I,” Ruth replied then sniffed and said, “But no crying Micah, we can’t do that.” She paused then said, “Would you like to see him? If I can work out how to do that.”

“Yes please,” Micah opened his eyes instantly, sitting up straighter.

It took half a minute for Micah to teach Ruth how to turn the call into a video call, and then how to flip the camera around so it wasn’t on her own face.

Then Micah saw Jude for the first time in months. Micah hadn’t known what to expect - maybe a scary hospital room, lots of wires and Micah looking beaten and bruised despite all the time that had passed. But Jude looked like he was asleep at home in bed. The bed had on a colorful comforter that Ruth must’ve brought for him, his hair was combed neatly and there was no medical equipment around. Jude was also slightly curled on his side, the head of the bed raised slightly.

He looked normal, and Micah could almost convince himself that Jude was okay. Until Ruth spoke, her free hand softly carding through her son's hair, “They want to take him in for another surgery next week, relieve some more pressure off his brain.”

Micah noticed then a scar near Jude’s temple, barely visible because of the not-so-great camera quality. He said nothing, too upset to figure out what to say. Luckily Ruth continued, “He misses you all, I know he does. I haven’t told him anything, they said it was best not to worry him and that he might not understand anyway.”

Jude looked so lost sometimes, staring at his mother with sad eyes that cried out for help while he couldn’t do much to move. The attack had damaged a lot, including his motor skills.

“I wish we could be there,” Micah said sadly, wiping his tears, glad Ruth couldn’t see him crying, “I’m sorry we couldn’t come see him before we left.”

“It’s okay,” Ruth told him, sitting down again but keeping the camera aimed at Jude. She held his hand. “It wasn’t your fault. I would’ve let you boys come here if I could, but I can’t…”

Micah nodded and cut her off, “You can’t fight for us and Jude both.”

Ruth said nothing but Micah knew that’s what she’d meant. He understood, and he was glad she was putting all her energy into helping Jude. “We’ll be fine, Ruth. We just miss him.”

“I’ll tell him you called,” Ruth sighed, “Maybe it’ll help him recover faster, knowing you’re cheering him on.”

“Thank you,” Micah sniffed, “And thank you for letting me see him, it’s been so hard but it feels better being able to see that he looks okay.”

“He’s healed up physically,” Ruth sounded like she was smiling sadly, “It’s all the brain now. The doctors have told me that it’s going to be weeks before we see any major improvements.”

“But he will improve?” Micah asked.

“Yes, and he’s already showing steps. He’ll squeeze my hand when I ask, and he’s starting to move his lips like he’s wanting to speak but can’t quite work out how to get the words out.”

Micah felt more hot tears run down his face and said, “He’ll be okay, Ruth. I’ve been praying for him.”

“Thank you, Micah. I better let you go, but I really appreciated the call and so does Jude,” Ruth told him, “Please keep calling, and Shane and Blaine as well. If Jude’s awake, he’d love to hear your voice.”

“We will,” Micah promised, “I’ll pass along your message.”

They said their goodbyes and hung up, and Micah sobbed on his bed for a while, knees curled up against his chest. Once he’d finished crying, he sent Blaine and Shane a message saying,

“I got to see him, he looks good. Surgery next week but Ruth said he’s getting better. She wants us to call more, so Jude can hear us.”

Micah talked with them for a while then put his phone down, grabbed a book and read until he was asleep, his thoughts only on Jude.


	7. Derek's Birthday

When Micah came downstairs the next morning, there was already a lot of boys awake. Derek was sitting on a bar-stool in the kitchen, trying to sip his coffee but Julian and Logan were bugging him about last minute things for the party.

“Morning Micah,” Nick greeted from where he was eating some cereal.

“Good morning,” Micah returned then added, “Uh, happy birthday Derek.”

“Thanks,” Derek glanced at him for a moment then returned to the conversation with his friends. Derek, Logan and Julian had all been nice enough to him, but mostly kept to themselves while inside the building. Micah learned early on that this was a good thing, the three of them fought often and he learned to keep out of the way, just as the other students had.

While Windsor often had yells of excitement or explosions from Drew and Satoru’s room, Stuart was often filled with screamed expletives and the slamming of doors. Micah asked Terry and Isaac once why they were even still friends, and neither of them could give him a good answer.

“I don’t think even they know,” Isaac had said, “I think they’re all they have, so they’d take a toxic relationship than nothing at all.”

A lot of the fighting came from Julian and Logan, though Derek wasn’t innocent either, even if it just started with him trying to keep the peace. Logan had yelled at Micah just a week into his transfer, and Micah had felt scared for a moment but Bailey had assured him that he’d be fine, just keep out of the way. Most of the time, Logan was more bark than bite.

Micah saw Julian more than the other two since he’d sometimes hang out with the drama club. He’d mock them or point out things that weren’t overly helpful, but Micah figured it just came from a place of insecurity. Julian had been a child star until just a couple of years ago, and magazines had predicted he’d be one of the greatest actors of his generation. Then something happened, and Micah wasn’t sure what, but Julian fell from grace suddenly and was sent to Dalton because of it.

Julian had grown bitter, and his only outlet was other students.

_“It used to suck,” Terry admitted to Micah one evening while they were painting set pieces, “He had a way of making me feel like absolute garbage, and I almost quit because of it.”_

_“What changed?” Micah had asked._

_“I just grew thicker skin,” Terry shrugged, “You have to deal with assholes in life, and divas are everywhere in the industry. Once I realized that, I just learned to ignore what he says and move on.”_

Micah got himself some breakfast and coffee, sat beside Nick and just watched the trio talk.

“You’re not inviting Casey,” Logan was telling Derek, “You’ll just sneak off and fuck upstairs.”

“It’s my birthday, I can do what I want,” Derek pointed out.

“And we’re throwing you a party!” Logan argued, his black coffee ignored on the counter, “So no Casey until the party is over.”

“Logan has a point,” Julian said unhelpfully, “What’s a party in your honor if you’re not even there?”

Derek rolled his eyes, “It hasn’t stopped you before. But fine, I won’t invite her until after the party is done. She’ll just be bitching at me for drinking too much, anyway.”

“And no other girls,” Logan poked his finger into Derek’s shoulder, “I mean it. Boys only.”

While the party was going to be in Stuart, students from other houses were allowed to come in as long as they were ‘approved’ by Derek, which really only meant the people he didn’t hate from his sports teams.

“We get it, you’re gay,” Derek quipped, finally finishing his coffee and stood up, thrusting the empty mug at Julian, “My birthday, so you can clean up for me today.”

Julian just blinked at him for a moment then dropped the mug onto the floor, the handle chipping but it stayed intact, “No thanks.”

Logan rolled his eyes at them both, picking the mug up and putting it in the sink, no doubt for someone else to clean, then the three left the kitchen, still bickering with each other.

“They’re exhausting to watch,” Nick said, “But it’s free entertainment, so I’m not going to complain.”

Micah nodded, “I’d get tired of being that grumpy all the time.”

Nick laughed then asked, “Are you going to hang around today?”

“A little bit - Shane’s got an audition for the dance club, I want to be there to support him. It’s not for a couple of hours though.”

“Oh shit, that’s awesome. My friend Jeff takes dance, you should’ve told me and I’d have made him put in a good word!” Nick said.

“Shane didn’t tell us until yesterday,” Micah said, “But he’s an incredible dancer, I think he can get in just on that.”

Nick smiled at him, “That’s very cute, you know?”

“Huh?”

“You and Shane, the way you talk about him. It’s nice, especially after hearing those three talk to each other.”

Micah chuckled, “Yeah, well I do…” he hesitated a moment, “I do love him.”

Nick didn’t seem at all fazed by hearing Micah talk out loud about his boyfriend. They all knew about the two boys, and he’d never had a problem with that sort of thing. It was just the same as if Micah was talking about a girlfriend.

“Tell Shane good luck from me,” Nick said, “But like you said, I’m sure he’ll get in no problem.”

Micah and Nick kept chatting as they finished up breakfast. Instead of washing it, Nick just threw Derek’s mug into the trash, giving Micah a wink who laughed.

It almost felt odd not having any more school work to do. He’d caught up, and with the entrance exams now over, there as nothing new to fill in the gaps in his schedule. He had plenty of books to read - the school library was extensive, and Micah loved going and browsing the shelves, picking out new books almost daily. The librarian knew him by name and had begun recommending him new books to read based on what she knew he enjoyed.

But Micah didn’t feel much like reading today, so he put on a cardigan and started to walk around the school grounds. He’d do that sometimes with Shane, but they were always talking and he never really got to appreciate the school like he wanted to. He walked under the wisteria trees, read the name on the memorial bench, and admired the old architecture of the cathedral and the bell tower.

Dalton was a beautiful place if you ignored the reason why everyone was there. Sometimes it felt like a regular boarding school - or at least what Micah believed they were like. No matter what he’d seen at Dalton so far, he never once missed Stanton, only Erin and Jude but they weren’t there anymore. He found that he didn’t miss his parents, still angry at them for wanting to send him away to be ‘cured’ and wondered if that anger would ever fade.

Micah stayed lost in thought until he felt Blaine put an arm around his shoulder and say softly, “Come on Micah, let’s go watch Shane.”

Micah blinked at him then let Blaine guide him towards the theatre. They slipped in quietly through the back doors, a dancer already on stage but it wasn’t Shane and they hoped they weren’t too late.

“Is everything okay?” Blaine whispered to Micah once they were sitting, both of them watching the stage.

“I was just thinking, I guess I got kind of lost,” Micah admitted, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Blaine shook his head, “I get sad too, thinking about everything that’s happened this year. What you said about Jude last night, about how we should call more, I think you’re right. I’ve been kind of scared to call, I guess.”

“He looked okay,” Micah reminded him, clapping as the one dancer finished and took his leave. The judges were talking amongst themselves so Micah whispered, “It was scary at first but he really did look like he was napping, and I couldn’t tell it was a hospital room. It made me feel better.”

Blaine nodded just as Shane’s name was called, and the two in the audience sat up a bit to pay full attention to the stage.

Shane entered from the right, told the judges his name, grade level and dance type, and then waited for the music. Micah watched proudly as Shane danced to a song they were both familiar with - one that Shane often tried to get Micah to dance along with. He was in his element on the stage, the spotlight shining only on him.

The second he was done, both Micah and Blaine started clapping and Shane locked eyes with them and gave a grin as he tried to catch his breath. The judges thanked him, and Shane quickly exited the stage then walked right to them.

“You did so well!” Blaine told him, clapping him on the back, “Well done.”

Micah pulled Shane into a hug and said, “That was amazing, Shane; they’d be crazy to not have you.”

Shane was laughing, delighted by their praises but said, “There is only one spot and six of us trying out.”

“And you’re going to get it,” Blaine nodded, more than convinced after seeing that performance. He knew Shane danced well, but it still always blew him away to see him actually perform. The three sat down to watch the final performance, a young Hanover boy who did really well. They clapped for him at the end, then headed out of the hall.

“So when will you know?” Micah asks, holding Shane’s hand as they slowly walked, not in any particular direction.

“Today hopefully, they’re going to put the results up on the notice board outside South and Main,” Shane said, feeling energized, “So I’m going to keep checking until I know.”

Blaine laughed but said, “Just don’t stress about it - you’ll get in.”

The was no ‘and if not…’ that followed, and it made Shane feel even better. He knew Blaine and Micah always believed in him and it was great hearing how confident they were that he did well. Especially after he felt like he bombed the exams, having this would soften the blow somewhat.

“What should we do today?” Shane asked, and Micah said, “Well, I’ll probably go to Derek’s birthday party for a bit, check it out at least. I don’t want to be rude.”

Blaine raised an eyebrow, “I hardly think anyone in that house is going to think you’re rude.”

While Blaine didn’t spend much time around Stuart or it’s students, he and Logan did share glances in the halls, and Logan would always find a reason to talk to Blaine in their shared classes. Blaine was curious about the blond boy, not sure if he was just being friendly or if there were other reasons for it. He wasn’t sure, but he did know that his heart skipped a beat every time he saw Logan smile, and he caught himself more than a couple of times making sure he looked nice each day, with Logan’s approval on his mind.

Then the guilt would come back. The guilt about Jude. The guilt about liking boys at all.

So he’d mentally kick himself, and avoid Logan for a few days until the feelings went away.

Rise and repeat.

It didn’t help that Joshua was still very vocal about his own crush on the singer, though never actually in Logan’s presence. Blaine would be disappointed if Josh and Logan ever got together, but he’d be happy for his friend regardless and would move on. He’d had crushes before, and nothing had come from any of them. Something may have happened between him and Jude in time, but Blaine didn’t like to dwell on that.

“I’m also wanting to see if Stuart is capable of actually throwing parties,” Micah mentioned with a twitch on the corner of his lips, “Surely they are.”

Shane laughed at this then whispered into Micah’s ear, “If they have drinks, sneak me out one.”

Micah grinned at him then Blaine asked, “What are you two up to?”

“Nothing,” Shane said immediately, “Just a little note for Micah.”

Blaine raised an eyebrow but both kept their mouths shut. He sighed.

They’d arrived at a set of benches beside the tennis courts, currently unoccupied, so they sat together and talked for a while. Blaine and Shane both still had catch-up work but wanted to just chill for the day before getting back into it, especially if they were going to be signing up to clubs soon which would eat more of their time.

* * *

An hour later, Micah finally stood up and said, “Alright, I’m going to check this party out.”

“Oh! And I want to check if the results are up yet!” Shane jumped up, looking at Blaine with nervous excitement. Blaine chuckled and said, “I’ll come with you. Call us if you need anything, Micah.”

Micah nodded and headed off towards his house, while the two brothers made their way back to South and Main. Shane was disappointed when there was no results yet, and Blaine had to remind him that it was still early, and suggested they get something to eat while they wait.

Micah was pleasantly surprised to hear music when he went inside Stuart, and he followed the sounds to the common room. Julian was putting a crown on Derek’s head and declaring him, “Prince of the day!” which made Derek laugh.

Even Logan looked more relaxed than he had earlier that morning, watching his two best friends with a smile as he sipped from a bottle. Micah took note of the other students, and quite a lot of them were there - even George and Riley who didn’t strike Micah as party people. He noticed a few Hanover boys and a couple of Windsors, but not ones he was really familiar with.

Bailey was playing with the music, so Micah went over to stand with him for a bit.

“Hey Bailey,” Micah smiled and Bailey smiled back at him, “Sup Micah.”

“They put you in music duty?”

“I volunteered,” Bailey said then took a moment to fade that song out and start another, “I don’t trust any of them with this.”

Micah laughed, “Not even Logan, isn’t the lead Warbler?”

“Yep, but his type of music isn’t great for parties; too depressing. They’re great to sing but not so great to dance to.”

“Fair enough,” Micah nodded then looked to where a large table was filled with food and drinks. That hadn’t been there that morning, and he doubted that the teachers had helped set it up so he asked, “Did they get a caterer?”

“Yep, Logan called in some favors. Oh! And I should warn you - all the bottles with a yellow star are alcohol.”

Micah looked closer, and while all the bottles looked the same - clear glass with no labels and all various colors, some did in fact have yellow stars on the caps, while others had silver moons.

“It’s so if any of the teachers come by, we can show there’s no alcohol. If they press, we’ll just hand them one of the normal ones.”

“Genius,” Micah said with a laugh. He remembered Shane telling him about Windsor parties and how they all just used solo cups but made no real effort to hide they were drinking. Stuart boys seemed to have learned from those kinds of mistakes.

“Can anyone drink them?” Micah asked and Bailey nodded, “Yeah, go ahead. George has eagle eyes though, so he’s not letting anyone leave if they’re even a little tipsy.”

“You’re not drinking?” Micah asked.

“I’m 14,” was Bailey’s only reply, a hint of judgement in his voice. Micah nodded then left him to concentrate on his music, going over to the spread at the table. He was hungry so he didn’t have to pretend to browse any of the food, he filled a small plate and then grabbed one of the star bottles and found a seat.

Logan and Derek were trying to wrestle each other to the ground but were both laughing.

“Give it here, dickhead!” Derek was saying, trying to pin his friend but Logan was squirming and managed to roll away, holding something up to Julian who snatched it.

Julian looked at what it was and started laughing, casually side-stepping while Derek tried to grapple at him.

“Oh this is precious, Derek,” Julian teased then finally allowed his shorter friend to take the photo back, and Derek immediately ripped it up.

Logan snorted, “I made copies.”

“Why do you hate me?” Derek groaned.

“Because you’re an asshole,” Logan grinned and ruffled Derek’s hair before making his way over to the table. He’d lost his bottle in the scuffle and wanted another one.

“Oh, hey Micah,” Logan nodded to the boy, “Didn’t see you come in.”

“I haven’t been here long,” Micah told him then asked, “Embarrassing photos?”

“Only the best,” Logan smirked, “Derek and I were friends in grade school, I have a lot of dirt on him.” He then notices the drink Micah had and said, “That’s alcohol.”

“Yeah, Bailey told me about the stickers.”

Logan snorted and started to sip another drink as well, leaning against the chair Micah was in and commented, “You don’t seem like the type to drink.”

“No?” Micah questioned.

“I guess it’s the glasses,” Logan mused, looking considerate then added, “Also how nerdy you are. I suppose I shouldn’t judge on looks alone.”

Micah shrugged, not wanting to play into the teasing but that didn’t stop Logan, “Murdoch graded your literature exam, by the way. Quite impressive by the sounds of it, you really seem to know your stuff.”

Micah was confused - Logan sounded like he was working his way up to shoot him down, but his words so far were nice enough. And Micah felt a little pride at hearing he’d done well on that part of the exams - if Logan was telling the truth after all.

“Thank you,” he said politely, “I didn’t think I’d get any feedback until Monday.”

“I can pull some strings,” Logan shrugged, already half-finished his bottle while Micah had only taken a few sips of his, “and I had been curious.”

“Well, uh, thanks,” Micah said again, not sure what else he could say.

Logan chuckled and clicked his bottle against Micah’s, “Blaine can come to the party, by the way. I’ve added him to the guest list - last-minute addition.”

“Not Shane?” Micah asked.

“No, not him,” Logan nodded, staring over at where Derek and Julian were talking to Riley, who had a scowl on his face, “Just Blaine.”

Micah hesitated then nodded, “I can ask.”

Logan smiled, “Please do,” and then he walked off, going over to see what was happening with his friends.

Micah wasn’t sure why Blaine had been invited and not Shane, but figured that since Blaine and Logan shared some classes, maybe they just bonded more. Blaine had mentioned Logan in passing a few times, but nothing to where Micah suspected they were even friends.

Either way, he took out his phone and sent a text to Blaine, “Logan wants you to come to the party. ….not Shane, sorry.”

He didn’t get a reply for a while until ten minutes later a text came through, “Sorry, it’d feel weird.”

Micah didn’t feel bad about that - it would’ve been nice to have Blaine at the party to socialize with, but it would feel too strange not having Shane there either. Especially with Shane anxiously awaiting the dance results, he wouldn’t want him to wait alone.

Micah didn’t go tell Logan right away, it didn’t seem that important. Micah chatted with a few other Stuart boys and had even been pulled up to dance by Terry, Nick and Jeff at one point which had been a lot of fun.

Logan had walked into an argument that had been brewing between Derek and Riley, and while he didn’t know the origins of it, he’d taken Derek’s side blindly while Julian had taken Riley’s. There was something about Riley Paige that even Logan didn’t want to mess with - something that always stopped him before he could throw a punch. He’d throw verbal barbs but that’s where it’d always end.

Logan did, however, turn some of his frustration towards Julian, who seemed so cocky and sure of himself as he kept pointing out Riley’s “points”. Logan didn’t care about whatever points he was making - it was Derek’s birthday and he didn’t want some know-it-all ruining it. Julian and Riley somehow kept level voices and relaxed bodies, where Logan and Derek were both tense and verged on yelling.

Logan found it infuriating.

George had stepped in at some point, and Riley took that moment to take his leave. Julian didn’t go with him, just shrugged it off like it was nothing, but Logan was still mad at him.

“I’m not going to take Derek’s side just because it’s his birthday,” Julian rolled his eyes, “and it’s not my fault that you get mad so easily. Why don’t you go take your meds and shut up?”

Logan was shoving Julian to the ground in the next moment, and the two wrestled to gain control. George rolled his eyes and grabbed Logan by his collar, hauling him off his friend like it was no more than a kitten fighting its sibling.

“Knock it off,” George told him, “Go take a breather.”

Logan ripped himself away from George and left the building. George raised an eyebrow at Julian and Derek but neither boy went to go after their friend. Micah watched quietly and soon realized that _nobody_ was going to check on Logan, and everyone just resumed dancing or talking.

Micah debated with himself for a minute then grabbed a couple of pieces of wrapped candy from the table and slipped outside. He found Logan easily, he hadn’t gone very far even with the head-start, and was sitting against a tree just staring out towards the other two houses.

Micah walked over and sat down beside him, holding out the candy like a peace offering. Logan blinked then said, “I can’t have those, I’m allergic.”

“Oh,” Micah felt stupid but Logan shrugged, “Maybe I should, then they might care about me.”

Micah put the candy down before Logan could follow through with that but Logan didn’t seem bothered as he looked back towards Windsor.

“Blaine didn’t want to come, did he?”

Micah blinked then said, “I did ask. He’s waiting to hear back about Shane’s dance results.” A pause then he added, “Sorry.”

Logan shrugged, “I’m used to it.”

There was an uncomfortable silence, with Micah regretting going to check on the other boy. But then Logan spoke again after a few minutes, “I try to do the right thing and it always blows up in my face.”

Micah hesitated then said, “I think they care about you, they both seemed to be having fun with you before.”

“You’re the only person who came to check on me,” Logan points out, “And you don’t even know me.”

“Would you be happy if Julian did follow you?” Micah asked him, “You seemed mad at him.”

“He’s infuriating,” Logan said though his voice didn’t rise, still a muted distracted tone, "It’s like he wants to piss me off on purpose sometimes.”

“I don’t think it’s just you,” Micah said, “He likes to piss Terry off as well.”

Logan snorted, “You have a point there.”

Another silence followed, less uncomfortable this time. Eventually, Logan just sighed and said, “You don’t have to stay at the party, I’m sure you want to be with your friends.”

“Will you be okay?” Micah asked him, realizing that was his queue to leave, and Logan shrugged, not giving an answer. Micah picked the candy back up and stood, brushing off his jeans and said, “I’ll see you later.”

Logan gave a small nod and Micah left, this time heading off down the hill towards Windsor. He was glad that he and his friends never fought - he’d only had one argument with Shane, and while he and Blaine bickered, it never even got to raised voices, and it was always pleasant with Erin and Jude.

Micah soon found Blaine and Shane, who were still awaiting Shane’s results and were glad Micah had decided to join them. Micah shared the candy, and they sat together to wait together.


	8. Dance Results

The list had been posted just after noon, and Shane had checked it right away before the student had even finished pinning it up. His face fell immediately, and Micah and Blaine both knew at that moment that someone else had been chosen.

They had comforted him right away, Shane not able to hide the disappointment on his face. They walked him away from South and Main towards an area in the courtyard that was quiet.

“I’m sure you’ll get it next time,” Blaine said in an attempt to comfort his brother, “And it’s not like you can’t keep dancing.”

“We always love dancers in theatre,” Micah smiled as he rubbed Shane’s back. They sat on a bench with Shane in between them. Shane stared at the ground and hadn’t said much since the results.

“And you’ve still got Warblers!” Blaine reminded him, though that was still a few weeks away, “They do a lot of dancing by the looks of it.”

“I wanted this,” Shane mumbled, sounding both bitter and upset.

“I know,” Micah pressed his face against Shane and said softly, “I’m sorry you didn’t get in, Shane.”

Shane shrugged.

They sat in silence for a while before Shane sighed and stood up, “I don’t want to think about it anymore, I’m going to go lay down.”

Blaine nodded though he looked worried for his brother, “We’ll come by and see you later.”

“You will,” Shane sounded even more bitter, “Micah’s not allowed.”

Micah stood as well, putting his hands on Shane’s face and tilted his head until they made eye contact. Shane was scowling but Micah knew it wasn’t at him, he was just upset.

“I love you, Shane,” Micah said softly, “This will be okay - go get some rest and clear your head, and call me when you’re feeling better. I’ll come right over, permission or not.”

Shane nodded, closing his eyes as Micah kissed his forehead. Shane turned and left, trudging back towards Windsor house. He knew he wouldn’t get much peace in there - it was a weekend after all, but he might be able to slip in and be left alone if he was careful enough.

* * *

The rest of the day passed with relative calm, except for the Tweedles sending a box to Stuart that exploded into millions of small glitter specs which coated the entire common room and its occupants.

Shane never did end up calling Micah so he’d eventually gone back to Stuart amidst all the chaos, shocked at how _much_ glitter could fit in a single box and also how little any of them cared to begin cleaning it up. The birthday boy and his friends weren’t in the common room, though judging by the glitter trailing upstairs, Micah assumed a bunch of them had gone up to change and shower.

Returning to Windsor, Blaine was pulled into the kitchen by Josh and David who were attempting to cook something.

“What is that? Is it supposed to look like that?” Blaine asked.

“No,” Josh looked equal parts amused, disgusted and stressed.

“It was supposed to be for Katherine,” David frowned, poking at the jelly-like substance. Blaine was almost certain that it wasn’t supposed to wiggle, whatever it was.

“I don’t think anyone should eat that,” Blaine pointed out and David sighed, “Yeah, I suppose not.”

“We could give it to Drew and Satoru, see if they can do something with it,” Josh suggested but Blaine picked the bowl up and dumped the entire thing in the bin before either boy could follow through with that suggestion.

“How about we bake a cake?” Blaine suggested instead, “I’ll help. I know my way around a kitchen… kind of.”

“You can’t do worse than us,” Josh grinned.

“Is there any reason for this?” Blaine asked as he picked up the recipe book and started to flip through it, “Or just being a good boyfriend?”

David leaned against the counter, “Katherine has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, she’s nervous about it so I thought I’d cheer her up with something home-baked.”

“Is she okay?” Blaine glanced at his friend. David had talked about Katherine a lot but never anything worrying.

“We hope so,” David says with a chuckle that didn’t give away how anxious he was, “Just some routine tests on her heart.”

“Oh, I hope it all goes okay,” Blaine finds a good simple recipe for a vanilla cake, “Let’s actually give her something to enjoy then.”

An hour later, a passable cake sat in front of the three boys on the table. It was a bit lopsided, had slightly browned on the bottom and the icing wasn’t set properly but as Blaine said, “It’s better than whatever that other thing was.”

“Now, how do we not get it eaten?” David questioned. The smell had already attracted a good number of Windsor boys over the past quarter hour, and they’d had to shoo them all away.

“When do you go to see her?” Blaine asked.

“At seven,” David said and looked at the time. It was just past four so he had to keep it safe for another three hours, which seemed almost impossible in Windsor.

“Maybe take it to Hanover?” Josh suggested but chuckled when David raised an eyebrow at that, “Okay nevermind.”

“Why would it be unsafe there?” Blaine questioned.

“They act like Mikey never feeds them,” David said with a laugh, “When really Mikey just refuses to let them all live on junk food. At least in Windsor, we’ll eat a normal meal then have sugary crap afterwards, but it’s like their life force there.”

“Spencer did a whole presentation last year about how we should be eating junk food now, while we’re still young and can handle it. He sure convinced me, but Peter - that’s last years prefect - told us not to listen.”

Blaine laughed, “I’m glad Shane didn’t hear that - he’s always got a candy bar on him, and I think he was actually afraid of green foods until he was ten.”

“Why don’t we just hide it in our room?” Blaine finally said, “I’m going to go check on Shane but I’m sure we can keep it safe in there.”

“Is Shane alright?” Josh asked, and picked the cake up to take it up with David as they left the kitchen then a moment later he added, “Oh shit, the dance thing right? Did he not get in?”

“No,” Blaine said, “He did so well - Micah and I were watching, but I guess they just picked someone else.”

“They never like to pick freshmen,” David said as they got up to the second floor, “It’s ridiculous. I tried last year every single time they held auditions and wasn’t picked once. I haven’t tried yet this year, even though Jeff got in - he’s in our grade - it’s so dejecting getting passed over that many times.”

Blaine didn’t like to hear that, since Shane had his heart set on joining the team and if he had to wait a whole year then he’d be upset. If it came to that, Blaine would suggest to him to start his own dance group even if the school didn’t approve of it. He wanted his little brother to be happy, especially after all they’d gone through that year.

All three entered David and Blaine’s room, and Josh found a spot on top of the wardrobe to hide the cake for a few hours, closing the door for extra security. It may have seemed like overkill in a normal kill, but even David’s closest friends would fuck him over for fresh baked goods if they were so inclined.

“Tell Shane we’re sorry,” David said to Blaine, “The clubs are generally ruled by the seniors who don’t like the freshies. Even some of the sports teams don’t like including them.”

“But why? Shane can be just as good and _better_ than someone older than him.” Blaine was confused but also getting frustrated.

“We know,” Josh says, “But in a school like this - the seniors are typically the most ‘reformed’ and always get the final say. They want less work by having to deal with the troubled 14 years olds who have emotional problems. It’s stupid but it’s how it’s been for years apparently.”

Blaine rolled his eyes but there wasn’t much he and Shane could do, if that’s the way it’s always been; and while Blaine felt bad for his brother, he was more concerned about how well they all did on the exams. If Shane did bad, that’d now be worse for him after being rejected from the dance club.

“I’m going to go check on him,” Blaine sighed then nodded to David, “Have fun on your date, I’m sure she’ll love the cake.”

David smiled, “Thanks for the help, I would’ve gone and brought one from a store if you didn’t come by and rescue us.”

Blaine chuckled and left the room, heading up one more floor to Shane’s room. He could hear Shane talking with someone, and cracked the door open quietly so as not to interrupt them. But when he looked in, Shane was sitting on his bed, talking to someone on the phone while it faced him - clearly on facetime.

Shane caught the site of the door opening and looked up and smiled, “Oh, there’s Blaine! Blaine, I’m talking to Ruth.”

Blaine froze and his breath caught in his throat.

Yes, he’d talked to Ruth plenty of times through text and the very occasional phone call, but even after Micah’s reassurance, he was too frightened to go on a video call and possibly see Jude. It felt like it’d hurt him worse, being so far away and being unable to do anything.

Blaine started shaking his head, and Shane frowned in confusion. Ruth said something that Blaine couldn’t hear, and Blaine quickly closed the door behind him and stood in the hallway. He couldn’t do it, he couldn’t risk seeing Jude.

What if Jude was awake, and was paying attention? What if Jude didn’t even remember them and looked confused? What if Blaine could see the scar, and it reminded him that Blaine failed his friend - he couldn’t save him. Couldn’t even say goodbye.

Blaine sat down with his back against the wall, breathing hard. It only took a couple of minutes before Shane left the room and knelt beside him, the phone not with him.

“Blaine? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to see him yet,” Blaine was talking quickly, verging on a panic attack, “I’m not ready.”

“It’s okay, just breathe,” Shane said, hands flailing a bit like he didn’t know what to do, “I won’t make you, I didn’t know you were scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Blaine shot back without thinking even though he _was_ scared. He started to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself down again but his thoughts continued to race.

Shane rested a hand on Blaine’s knee and said, “I was scared at first too but that went away when I saw him. He looks normal, just like we remember him, just looks like he’s tired.”

“He was awake?” Blaine asked, his eyes shut as he continued to calm himself.

“Yeah,” Shane smiled, “He was awake. I took some photos on my phone, it was cool seeing him. Micah was right, you can barely tell it’s even a hospital and Ruth was saying that she’s brought so many things from home that it’s like his bedroom.”

They’d all been in Jude’s real bedroom a lot, Ruth was always inviting them over and letting them stay the night even knowing they were all gay (though of course, that wasn’t a worry about Erin), since she trusted her son and all his friends. Jude’s walls were covered in photographs, of posters he found cool, and magazine articles about things he found interesting.

He had his prized cameras on a shelf, and forbid even Blaine from touching a couple of them since they were old and special. Blaine wondered if Ruth brought those ones to the hospital.

“I’m sorry,” Blaine’s voice was still shaky but he was starting to come around, “I don’t know why I got so scared.”

Shane offered a smile, “It’s scary, I get it. You just need more time, but you really should call soon - it’s not as bad as what you think. I could ask Ruth to text when Jude’s asleep next, so you can see him without worrying about him being awake?”

Blaine didn’t respond to that, not wanting to commit to anything just yet. He needed more time to get used to the idea of seeing Jude again.

“Maybe,” he sighed and rubbed his eyes. No tears had fallen but they had come close.

“Come on, get off the floor,” Shane stood up, reaching out to help Blaine stand. Once Blaine was up, Shane said, “What did you come to tell me anyway?”

“Oh right,” Blaine said, “I just wanted to see how you were. You never came back down.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Shane looked a bit awkward as he and Blaine went back into his room, “I had run into Reed in the hallway, he showed me some of his new art and then I came here and took a nap. I kind of lost track of time.”

Blaine sat on the chair in the room, looking over at his brother, “You’re being nice to Reed, right?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shane asked, getting defensive.

“You can be very….. you, sometimes, and Reed looks like he gets overwhelmed easily.”

Shane threw up his hands in exasperation, “I’m nice! We’re friends!”

“Is that all you want to be?” Blaine asked.

Shane stared at him for a long time before asking in a low tone, “What does that mean? I’m with Micah.”

“I know, I know,” Blaine raised his hands in defence, “I’m just saying, I heard some other boys talk about how close you and Reed have gotten.”

“I’m allowed _friends_ , Blaine. Is anyone talking about me and Remy? Or Remy and Reed? Huh? Remy’s almost always there when we hang out.”

“Hey,” Blaine frowned, “I was just checking in, okay? Micah’s my friend, I don’t want him to get a wrong idea if there are rumors going around.”

Shane stood, fists clenched at his side, “People need to mind their own fucking business. It’s not a crime to make friends while gay, and you of all people should know that.”

“Shane-” Blaine started.

“You can leave now, I’m fine,” Shane said shortly.

Blaine nodded, not wanting to get into a fight over this, especially if other boys could hear them. He hadn’t been overly concerned, even when he heard how Shane may have been flirting with the red-haired artist, since he trusted his brother. Shane was loyal, he’d never hurt Micah especially for someone he barely knows.

But he did want to bring it up at some point, if not just to hear Shane’s thoughts on what the other boys were saying. Shane’s reaction made him feel better about it, even if he didn’t like to add to Shane’s already emotional psyche.

Blaine left the room and rubbed his face. While he may have added more onto Shane, he was definitely feeling a lot of things himself. He still felt guilty about freaking out over Jude, and now mad at himself for upsetting Shane for no good reason.

He retreated back downstairs to his room.

* * *

“If someone doesn’t get this cleaned up in the next hour, you’re all on house arrest for the rest of the weekend,” George said to the common room of Stuart boys.

He’d attempted to clean it all up himself, but they didn’t have a working vacuum anymore and every time someone walked through the common room, the glitter would settle into new places.

“Why can’t we make the twins do it?” Laurie grumbled, “They did this.”

“We’re not letting evil incarnate step foot in here,” George argued, arms crossed, “And for that comment, you can get up and start cleaning now.”

“Screw you,” Laurie sunk deeper into the couch before Logan hauled him up by his shoulders and shoved him forward, “Get cleaning, Holmes.”

Laurie instead just stormed out of the house but nobody went after him. Laurie was one of the freshmen but had come to Dalton with a lot of anger that rivalled Logan’s, though George gave him a lot of slack for reasons unknown to the other boys. George instead turned to Logan, “Good to see you volunteering, Logan.”

He held out the broom, and Logan rolled his eyes, “Fine but I’m not doing it alone.”

“The only one exempt is Derek,” George almost cracked a smile, “Since he’s the birthday boy.”

“He’s also too drunk,” Thad laughed. Derek was sitting on the floor near the unlit fireplace, laughing at something Julian was saying to him - neither boy paying any attention to their prefect and dormmates.

“That too,” George shrugged then, “Get to work.”

Micah didn’t mind helping, even though he hadn’t been there when the glitter bomb went off. A few of the students left without bothering to pretend to help, but some headed upstairs to clean up the small amounts of glitter that had made its way up there.

It took well over the hour George gave them, but Nick said at one point that George wasn’t going to stick to that - it was almost an empty threat. By the time the dinner bell rang, the house was mostly clean. Someone had gone and traded a bag of snacks to Hanover for use of their vacuum, and that had helped considerably.

George inspected the common room after coming back from dinner and deemed it satisfactory, though he did spend ten minutes pointing out flecks of glitter that he caught sight of, making the boys pick up the tiny pieces by hand.

“Well, George, do we get to leave the house tomorrow?” Cy asked.

“Sure,” George shrugged, “Less of you to deal with.”

Micah and Terry high-fived each other, and the spirits of the boys rose a little. George went to check on Derek, who was passed out in his bed but Logan was there with him to keep an eye out in case Derek got sick; then checked on Laurie who had been sulking in the library. George couldn’t convince the freshman to come back to the house yet, but reminded him of the curfew time and then left him alone.

* * *

Micah got back up to his room to see Shane calling, so he quickly answered before he could hang up.

“Hey Shane, sorry I just got back up to my room,” Micah said.

“Can you come over?” Shane asked, “I’ll sneak you into Windsor. Josh has gone out.”

“Everything okay?” Micah asked with a frown.

“I just want you,” Shane replied and Micah swallowed, glancing at the time then nodded, “I’ll be there soon.”

Micah hung up and smiled to himself for a moment. It wasn’t a big deal to him, but it had been a long time since he and Shane had been intimate - not since that day at the Anderson’s house. He wondered if they’d ever be able to be together again, it seemed almost impossibly especially with their two houses being so hostile.

Micah rummaged through his bag, finding the condoms he’d packed there and grabbed a couple, shoving them into his pockets and made his way out of Stuart. Nobody took notice of him. It didn’t take much to get Micah into Windsor - nobody really cared all too much, and even Ryan just raised an eyebrow and said, “He has to be out of here by ten.”

Shane pulled Micah straight up to his room, locked the door and then grinned before pulling Micah into the bed.


	9. Double Trouble

The next day saw a lot of the Windsors sitting in the common after lunch. Evan and Ethan had grown tired of the conversations early on and had wandered off no doubt looking for trouble, though Ryan figured if they weren’t in Windsor then he’d have some plausible deniability to whatever they’d end up doing.

“You’ll be fine,” Josh rolled his eyes once more at Shane’s fretting about the exam results, “If you bombed, you’ll just have some other kid tutor you for a while, or you’ll have some weekend classes until you catch up. It’s really not the end of the world.”

“And it counts as participation,” Ryan shoved some chocolate chips into his mouth, “Shows you’re willing to fix things you’re not good at; the teachers eat that up. There’s barely a kid here who didn’t have to do something after their entrance exam.”

“Riley didn’t,” Colby grins, “And he’s damn proud of that fact.”

“Miles didn’t either,” Remy pointed out but David groaned, “Don’t remind me.”

“Okay so there are some exceptions,” Ryan shrugged, “But really - it’ll be fine. They can’t actually make you go down a grade or kick you out, they’re obligated to help even the lost causes.”

Shane was still feeling shitty about not getting into dance, about the argument with Blaine, and now the upcoming exam results. He tried to let the others reassure him, but he’d always worried over that sort of things - a product of growing up with his dad. Bart would berate both him and Blaine for poor report cards, even if they had clearly tried their best.

Blaine wasn’t with them downstairs, having gone with Micah to help the theatre club paint sets. Blaine didn’t have much of an interest in joining them officially, but he didn’t want to face Shane yet and time with Micah without his brother there was hard to find these days.

David and Josh had set up the Wii and they were all taking turns playing Mario Kart, and the common room was getting loud. Shane wasn’t the best but he was having a great time and kept teasing Remy and Colby when he’d somehow beat them.

Ryan was about to take his next turn when Mikey came into the house and said, “Yeah, you got a problem, Cobb.”

Ryan groaned loudly and said, “Please tell me it’s not the twins.”

“Yeah,” Mikey said and motioned for him to follow, “Sean’s been hurt.”

Ryan sat up and tossed the controller to David, “None of you make any trouble while I’m gone off I’ll have your heads.”

Ryan followed Mikey out of Windsor, and they quickly walked to the dining hall. Lunch had been over for a while but students often liked to linger in there as the tables were large and they could all sit around and catch up, or play cards or whatever.

“They said something about pudding? And that Sean slipped and burned himself?” Mikey said, “I don’t really know, they didn’t make much sense.”

“They never make sense,” Ryan rolled his eyes and they entered the hall. Mikey led Ryan back to the kitchen, where the twins stood quietly and watched as Nicky from Hanover was holding Sean’s hand under a running stream of cold water. Sean was crying in pain but trying not to let it show.

“You two, out of the kitchen,” Ryan told the two identical boys, “But don’t go far, I have questions for you.”

Mikey raised an eyebrow at the twins until they left. Neither looked happy but they weren’t distressed either, more like this didn’t bother them in the slightest - which it likely didn’t.

“Did someone call the nurse?” Ryan asked and Mikey nodded, “Yeah, I sent Laurie to go find her. Hey, thanks Nicky, we’ll take over from here.”

The freshman Hanover boy looked frightened and quickly took his leave, and Ryan held Sean’s hand for him under the water. His hand looked horrible and was bright red, already blistering, and Ryan just had to ask, “What the fuck happened?”

Between sobs and whimpers, Sean managed to say that the twins had be been trying to use super-soakers to squirt everyone with pudding, and had dragged Sean into the kitchen to keep refilling for him. He’d tried to get away from them, not wanting to play their stupid games, but had slipped on the slippery kitchen tiles and tried to catch himself. His palm had landed right on the element, which the twins had turned on at first to try and boil the pudding and had forgotten to switch it off.

It wasn’t the first burn Ryan had to deal with, and certainly wouldn’t be the last. Drew had burned himself a couple of weeks back after another one of his experiments had blown up, but a quick trip to the nurse was all that he needed and he’d been back in Windsor an hour later. Sean’s injury, however, looked a lot worse, and Ryan cringed whenever he looked at it.

“The nurse is on her way,” Ryan assured the sophomore, not able to do much more than keep Sean’s hand under the cold water. The nurse arrived a few minutes later and took over, though gave instructions to the two prefects to help her out. Not a few minutes later, she guided Sean out of the dining hall, his hand in a bowl of ice-cold water.

Ryan sighed deeply for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Don’t kill them,” Mikey told his friend, “It sounds like an accident.”

“An easily avoided one,” Ryan said then added, “I’ll go talk to them then check on Sean, thanks for the heads up, Mikey. I’ll make the twins clean this up.”

Mikey nodded, and the two seniors left the kitchen. Mikey headed out, but Ryan was actually surprised to see that the twins had stuck around, figuring they would’ve found something better to do than wait for Ryan to yell at them. They were sitting at a table together and just chatting, stopping only when Ryan stood in front of them with his arms crossed.

“Why can’t you two ever use your brains?”

Evan shrugged but Ethan said, “It’s not our fault he slipped.”

“Yes, it is!” Ryan argued, feeling his blood pressure rise, “The floor would not have been slippery if you weren’t _shooting pudding from water pistols_.”

“It was just an accident, Ryan,” Evan said.

“And we’re sorry Sean got hurt.” Ethan nodded.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, “I don’t believe you in the slightest, you’ve never been sorry in your life.”

“Just give us a detention already,” Ethan rolled his eyes.

“Oh no, that doesn’t work on you,” Ryan said, “So you’re going to be waiting on Sean for the next few weeks until his hand looks normal again. And that means doing anything he asks - schoolwork, chores, I don’t care, but you’re his personal servants from now on until I deem it fit. And that’s on top of detention and house arrest for the next week. You go to classes and that’s it - I’ll be telling your choir teachers that you won’t be in practice this week.”

Ethan shrugged, not at all phased by this. All their friends were in Windsor, it wasn’t like being grounded though it did suck that they’d be missing Warbler practice. They also knew Sean wouldn’t ask them to do anything, only Ryan would find things for them to do for him.

“Now get in that kitchen and it better be spotless by the time you’re done. I’ll be asking Ms. McIntyre later if you did a good job or not, and if she reports anything bad then I’ll be adding onto your punishment,” Ryan said as he pointed back towards the kitchen.

The twins walked back to the kitchen, and Ryan caught them grinning at each other and felt a headache coming on. But he had other things to do and headed off to check on Sean.

* * *

Ryan would later find out that Sean had been taken to the local hospital to get his hand properly checked out, and would be staying overnight. He went and picked him up the next day, and Sean had tearfully said that he was at his breaking point and didn’t want to be in Windsor anymore. Ryan knew that some of the boys went through a lot, and Sean was right to be anxious about going back.

The prefect assured him that he’d figure things out but until then, he’d have to stay in Windsor. He told Sean about making the twins be his servants until his hand healed, but Sean said he didn’t want the twins anywhere near him and just wanted to be left alone until he could transfer. He was still in a great deal of pain, and since it was his writing hand that had burned, Ryan approved him to be out of classes for a few days.

In those few days, Sean, Ryan, Dean Ramsey and Sean’s mother had worked on getting Sean transferred out of Windsor and into Stuart. Mrs. Powell thought her son might do okay there since she was friends with Julian’s mother, and the two sophomores knew each other. The plan being that Julian could keep an eye on her son. 

Ryan put the twins to good use on Thursday, making them take everything of Sean’s across campus and up the hill to Stuart - including all his furniture. Both George and Ryan supervised the entire thing since the twins weren’t normally allowed in Stuart at all but they didn’t cause any trouble except for mocking some of the Stuart boarders who mocked right back, unphased.

Ryan had barely kept up with other Windsor shenanigans during the week, so once he was back in the common room after Sean was officially a Stuart, he sunk onto the couch and closed his eyes. “Catch me up.”

Ten or so boys began to talk at the same time until Ryan threw his hand up and said quietly, “One at a time.”

Remy bragged about Reed’s art exhibition the night before that had gone really well, the red-haired boy having sold a few pieces. Reed just blushed and mumbled how it wasn’t a big deal and could Remy please shut up about it now. Ryan peeked his eyes open to look at Reed with a smile, “Congrats.”

Next was David and Charlie filling him in about all the recent sports wins and losses, which Ryan really didn’t care about but let them give the report anyway. Then came the injury and explosion count, which was a lot lower than expected but Satoru had sheepishly admitted that it was because he and Drew had been gaming all week instead of doing science.

“Good, keep it that way,” Ryan said, “I’ll buy you all the video games in the world if you stop making things explore.”

“Sorry dude,” Drew grinned, “No can do but we’ll take those games anyway.”

Ryan sighed then asked, “No. Anything else? How about you two - Blaine, Shane? Oh, how did your exams go?”

He looked at the newest Windsor arrivals. It’d been almost a month since their arrival and they’d definitely settled in, but he realized he was never told about the outcome of their entrance exams which they would’ve received a few days ago.

“I did okay,” Blaine shrugged, “I have to get some extra help for a while but I’m at least staying a sophomore. I have to go to the tutoring center every day after classes for three weeks.”

“Hey, three weeks is pretty good. Pretty sure Colby went for his entire freshman year,” Ryan said with a teasing tone.

The boy in question scoffed, “I only went to hang out with Riley.”

“Sure, that’s the story,” Josh grinned at Colby who just laughed.

“How about you, Shane?” Ryan asked, but the freshman lowered his eyes and looked uncomfortable.

A bunch of the Windsor boys had heard that Shane had done poorly, but Shane himself didn’t ever want to talk about it and they hadn’t managed to get Blaine to tell them either.

Ryan understood and didn’t prod Shane, instead, he just offered a kind smile, “It’s not the end of the world - they’ll get you caught back up in no time.”

Shane nodded but still turned and walked out of the common room, not liking all the eyes on him. Blaine wanted to go after him but found Reed going instead so he stayed where he was.

“Will he be okay?” Ryan asked.

Blaine nodded, “Yeah, it’s just been a hard week for him. I’ll look out for him.”

The conversation quickly changed topics to discussing things coming up in the next week. The Warblers auditions were finally there, with Ms. Medel and Mr. Harvey welcoming all newcomers to try out on Tuesday, and the buzz in the air was exciting. Blaine, Josh and Shane were all trying out, as well as a couple of Hanover boys and Josh’s brother Bailey.

It ha been a helpful distraction for the Anderson brothers, who were going to audition separately to increase their chances of getting in. Reed and David were helping the brothers, and Josh often went to Drew to get advice although both of them often got distracted by Satoru in the room and wouldn’t do much singing, just messing around with either video games or experiments.

“Now, no more incidents,” Ryan told them but especially the twins, “If I have to write any more paperwork or report any one of you to Dean Ramsey for the next week, I’m going to be mad.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Remy laughed it off, “Go stand out there with your birds, Ryan, go calm down.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Ryan got off the couch and headed out. Birds never caused him trouble.

* * *

The next day, classes resumed as normal and both Anderson brothers had reported to the tutoring center after classes let out.

However, Logan was waiting outside the doors, arms crossed. He stood up straight when the brother arrived and said, “Shane, you can go on, I need to talk to Blaine.”

Shane and Blaine looked at each other confused, but Shane went into the building anyway.

“Is everything okay?” Blaine asked and Logan nodded, giving him a cool smile, “I’m going to take you to audition today.”

“But auditions aren’t until next week?” Blaine countered, still confused.

Suddenly, Logan took Blaine’s hand in his own and started leading him towards Warbler’s Hall. “Harvey and Medel will let you do it today.”

Blaine couldn’t help but think only about how Logan was holding his hand as if that was a normal everyday occurrence. Blaine had only ever held Jude’s hand before, and he was starting to over-analyze what it could mean. Logan let go just before they got to the door, and he made his entrance with Blaine following behind.

“Blaine’s going to audition,” Logan declared, eyes narrowed at the two choir directors.

Harvey didn’t even look at him, sorting through his sheet music, “He can audition next week like everyone else. You’re late.”

“No, he’s doing it today,” Logan said, standing his ground.

Harvey sighed, but Medel looked at the curly-haired boy with a kind smile, “Are you sure, Blaine?”

“Uh,” Blaine hesitated. While he knew what he wanted to sing, he’d thought he had another few days to practice, “Yeah.”

“Fine,” Harvey finally relented, “But the other Warblers are going to be voting fairly, aren’t we boys?” He cast a look at the students who were standing around, watching the exchange. Some gave nods, some whispered amongst themselves.

Blaine asked to borrow a guitar, and then he sat and performed in front of 20 other boys. It was a song he’d written a couple of years back and he hoped the originality of it would help and not hurt his chances. More than a few times, he caught Logan’s eyes and had trouble looking away. Once the final chord finished, there was a single beat of silence and then a round of applause.

Blaine looked at the other boys, and his Windsor friends especially were clapping and cheering loudly. Logan was clapping as well and smiled proudly at Blaine.

“Well,” Medel looked at the sophomore, “I can’t say I’ve heard of that song before.”

“I wrote it,” Blaine said, “I hope that’s okay.”

Medel and Harvey shared an interested look at this information, then Harvey nodded at Blaine. “Thank you, that was a great audition. If you’d like to step out, we’ll take a vote now.”

Blaine nodded, only now feeling worried. As he went and stood outside in the hall, he had a few worries. One was if he didn’t get in - did the original song blow his chances? Or auditioning too early? And what if he did get in? What would he tell Shane and Josh, who didn’t get this special chance as he just did? If he got in now, did that lower the chances for them?

Blaine started biting his nails after a few minutes. The longer the decision took, the more worries came to mind. Finally, after ten minutes, the doors opened again and Medel welcomed him back into the room. David gave him a subtle thumbs-up, and Logan winked at him which made Blaine blush and quickly look away.

Harvey stood in front of Blaine, Medel and all the boys and after giving them all a long look, he announced,

“Welcome Blaine, our newest Warbler.”

Cheers broke out, and Blaine was suddenly weighed down with dozens of blazers and hugs from the boys. Even the Stuart and Hanover Warblers were hugging and congratulating him, welcoming him into their club. The two choir teachers let them do this for a couple of minutes then Harvey clapped his hands, “Alright, that’s enough. You still have a full practice left, and you’ve wasted enough time this week. We’re three down still, so you need to be giving it 150%.”

He turned to look at Blaine who was shaking himself off, “You can sit and just watch today, see how we do things. Stay afterwards and we can have a talk.”

Blaine nodded and found a seat away from the other boys, and just watched.

He was a Warbler now.

He couldn’t believe it.

_What would Shane and Josh think?_


	10. The Fight; The War

Josh was happy for Blaine and even hugged him in excitement, saying how cool it was that he got to audition first. Blaine did notice that Josh didn’t seem too interested in talking about the Logan side of it though, and he wondered if Josh was jealous. Blaine knew that Josh was still openly crushing on the Stuart boy but that Logan hadn’t given Josh any indication of reciprocation.

Blaine didn’t want to spend too long thinking about what Logan may have thought about him but he couldn’t deny that he got butterflies whenever he imagined himself and Logan dating one day, but he still found more than enough reasons to shove those thoughts aside. He wouldn’t allow himself unrealistic daydreams. Logan was just being kind, that’s all. Looking any deeper into that just spelt embarrassment and heartache down the line.

Shane, however, wasn’t so pleased when Blaine came back to Windsor and told him what had happened. Shane had already lost so much recently, and now his chances of getting into the Warblers was a lot lower.

“You could have said no!” Shane yelled, “We were all supposed to do it next week!”

“I know,” Blaine said, cringing, “I got swept up in it all, and it was hard to say no to Logan. Besides, you should be happy for me.”

Shane narrowed his eyes, “Happy for you? You’re getting everything you want - everyone loves you, they all want you in their stupid clubs and you’ve got boys literally dancing for your affection! Why should I be happy about that? I have nothing. I bombed those exams, I didn’t get into the dance club, and now there’s no way they’re going to let me join the Warblers.”

Blaine let him rant, hoping Shane would burn off some of his anger. They were in Blaine’s room - David was out - but there was little chance that other Windsor boys couldn’t hear the fight. But it didn’t make Blaine feel any better, and he realized there was some rage of his own growing but he bit it back for now.

“I can’t spend any time with Micah because of these stupid fucking house rules,” Shane continued, starting to pace across the rug, “and now we have to do this tutoring thing because I’m apparently too fucking stupid for this school but I can’t leave because it’s here or a pray-away-the-gay school! I have no options left and nobody seems to give a fuck! So my time with Micah is even shorter.”

Blaine was about to say something, tell Shane to calm down, but Shane glared at him with his fists clenched, “And I’ve been talking to Ruth all week and she says you haven’t called once. I have to be the bad guy and tell her that you’re busy; do you know how awful that feels, to have to tell her that you’re now too popular and cool to call Jude? Have you forgotten him, Blaine? You told me you loved him.”

Blaine’s mouth opened but he couldn’t formulate a single reply, not sure if he would scream or cry if he tried. Shane just glared, waiting for a reply that didn’t come. Finally, he went to the door and before he stormed out, he said in a cold voice, “I hate you sometimes.”

The door slammed behind him and Blaine was left in the oppressive silence for a moment, then he grabbed the thing closest to him - a textbook - and threw it at the door angrily.

The door reopened half a minute later, and Charlie poked his head in looking concerned, “Is everything okay?”

Blaine shook his head then managed to say through gritted teeth, “I need to be alone.”

“Uh, okay…” Charlie raised an eyebrow but left the room again.

Blaine stared at the door for a long moment, fighting off the tears of rage. The worst part of it all was that Shane had been correct. Blaine and Micah both were doing well at the school - they were doing okay in classes, getting in the clubs and making a lot of friends. And while Blaine hadn’t forgotten about Jude at all, he hadn’t worked up the courage yet to call Ruth.

He’d even stopped texting her, hoping she wouldn’t notice since Micah and Shane were calling more than ever. But that clearly wasn’t the case now, and he felt nauseous with the guilt of it all.

Blaine broke down into heavy sobs, curled up on his bed until all the tears ran dry and his head ached. Nobody else had attempted to check on him in that time, which he was grateful for. Charlie must’ve told everyone to stay away, or they were checking on Shane instead.

Blaine finally picked up his phone and after starting a text for a long time, he messaged Ruth, “Can I call?”

Ruth replied a couple of minutes later, “I’ve just stepped out for a bite to eat. Can I call in 10?”

Blaine responded with, “Yes please.”

In those ten minutes, Blaine washed his face and calmed down more. His face was still a bit splotchy by the time he settled back on his bed and he hoped it wouldn’t pick up on the camera.

When Ruth called, Blaine hesitated again and almost let it ring out. But he took a deep breath and clicked accept.

“Hey sweetheart,” Ruth greeted, the way she’d always call them all, “It’s good to hear from you.”

“I’m sorry,” Blaine said quietly, “for not calling sooner.”

Ruth didn’t sound upset, just worried as she said, “It’s okay, Blaine. You’re still settling into your new school, it’s not easy. Micah and Shane have been filling me in.”

“I know…” Blaine trailed off then asked, “Are you with Jude?”

“Yes,” Ruth sounded like she was smiling, “Do you want to see him?”

Blaine had worked himself up to this, but it still caught his breath in his throat. He wished they’d been able to see Jude before they left California, it would’ve been a lot easier.

“Yes,” was all Blaine managed.

And then Blaine got to see Jude for the first time.

Much like Shane’s first video call, Jude was awake and sitting up in bed, facing away from them and looking out the window.

“Jude, honey, Blaine’s on the phone,” Ruth said to her son, who turned his head to face the other way.

Blaine’s breath again caught in his throat but he managed to choke out, “Hi Jude.”

Jude raised his right hand up just slightly as if to wave but too weak to do much more before it dropped to his lap again.

“I miss you,” Blaine couldn’t take his eyes away from the sight of Jude. He soon forgot that Ruth was there too, holding the camera - his focus was only on Jude. Nothing else mattered, “I wish I was there.”

Jude gave a small nod, and he sucked in his bottom lip. It looked like he was trying not to cry, just like Blaine was doing. Blaine knew Jude couldn’t talk properly yet - he would make attempts, and some of them could be interpreted as words but he wasn’t quite there yet. So Blaine kept the conversation up for both of them.

“You’re looking great, Jude,” Blaine said softly, “I always did tell you to grow your hair longer.”

Jude’s lips twitch up into a smile, and Blaine smiles back at him in response. It’d been so long since he’d seen Jude smile. Micah and Shane were right - this wasn’t as scary as he’d been imagining it but it was way sadder than he thought as well.

Blaine felt so trapped at Dalton, the idea that he’d never be able to leave for long enough to see Jude again was suffocating. Even the boys at Dalton who did everything right never got to leave the state without their parents picking them up, and couldn’t be gone more than a weekend at a time. He’d be stuck at Dalton for three years, even through the summer months. Dalton stopped classes over summer and winter breaks, but most of the students had to remain living on campus.

Blaine began telling Jude about his new school, just talking for close to a full hour about everything that came to mind. He left out some pieces, about his fights with Shane and the crush he had on Logan, but Jude got to hear every other part. Jude stayed away for all of it, even though his eyes would close sometimes. Ruth would talk as well, prompting with some questions or anecdotes about Jude whenever it was relevant.

If it wasn’t for the occasional smile or nod, Blaine wouldn’t be sure that Jude was able to process all of it. When Blaine mentioned getting into the Warblers, Jude gave a thumbs up and it made Blaine laugh quietly, “I’m glad I have your approval.”

Blaine felt like he could’ve stayed on the call all night but Ruth eventually cut in to say, “I think Jude should get some rest, but we loved hearing from you again, Blaine.”

Jude looked sadly at his mother, also not wanting to end the conversation but Blaine nodded, “Yeah, that might be a good idea. I have some homework to do anyway. I’ll call tomorrow, Jude, and you can have your mom call me anytime - I’ll pick up the phone, I promise.”

Jude looked like he was trying to say something but couldn’t quite work out how to make the sounds work properly and just sighed, resigning himself to just nodding.

Ruth said goodbye, and the call ended. Blaine felt oddly better after it - though his emotions still went all over the place. He put his phone in charge and lay down on his bed, lost in thought.

David snuck in at one point and when Blaine didn’t make any indication that he wanted to talk, he grabbed some of his things and slipped out again. When Shane had stormed out of Windsor after blowing up at Blaine, but David and Wes had caught him while they were heading over towards Windsor and had gotten the whole story.

Nobody in Windsor had realized how badly one of their own was doing, and the two sophomores sat with Shane and really listened to him. Shane spent so long just angrily ranting to them about everything - his home life, their life at Stanton, his hopes while at Dalton and how everything around him was crumbling. He talked about that day when Bart caught him and Micah, and he was detailed about it. David and Wes didn’t stop him once and let him keep ranting until he had to stop to catch his breath.

“You haven’t talked to anyone about that, have you?” Wes asked.

“Nobody wants to hear it, and Blaine wanted us to keep quiet about it,” Shane replied, feeling almost tired now. Being angry took a lot out of him and it was his second rant that afternoon.

“There’s a therapist that comes in every day,” David points out, “Why don’t you go to her?”

Shane shrugged, “I didn’t think it was a big enough deal.”

Wes gave him an incredulous look, “Uh dude, it kind of is. That shit sounds traumatizing and it doesn’t sound like you’re coping at all.”

“There’s no harm in it,” David added, “I still go once or twice a week. Lots of kids here do, that’s why she comes in so often. It helps.”

“Dad said therapy’s a bunch of bullshit,” Shane muttered.

“Your dad is a complete asshole,” Wes said and using one finger, he lifted Shane’s head to look him in the eye, “You didn’t deserve what he did to you, and you need to talk to someone professional about all of that. Hell, all three of you need therapy.”

Shane lowered his eyes again but he knew they were right.

“And don’t worry about the Warblers,” David told him with a lighter tone, “You’ll get in. We all vote and it’s based on majority votes. As long as you can hold a tune, you’ll be fine - most Warblers are Windsor boys and we’ll all back you up because you’re one of ours.”

It was mostly against the rules, but Harvey and Medel couldn’t tell them off. All the boys who’ve auditioned and gotten in could all sing. Satoru was the only one who didn’t get enough votes but he was tone-deaf and even the Windsor boys didn’t feel good about giving pity votes. Satoru didn’t seem to mind though.

“It won’t be this hard forever,” Wes promised, “The classes will get easier and you’ll make more friends. You can sit with us at lunch, too. Don’t feel like you have to stick to Reed and Remy - both of them like to keep to their own bubble but if you’re unhappy, then come hang out with us as well.”

”And drag them with you,” David laughed, “We’ve been trying for ages, especially with Reed. We’re actually surprised you’re so close with them, I’m pretty sure Reed only talked to Remy last year. It was kind of sad.”

Shane nodded, rubbing his eyes for a moment then said, “I’ll try.”

“I’ll write down the details for the therapy sessions,” David said with a smile, “Give it a go at least.”

The two sophomores got up and said their goodbyes, leaving Shane to think over everything. It was getting late, but Shane stayed out there on the bench under the wisteria trees. He was glad David and Wes had stopped and talked to him, it had helped him calm down and rationalize his thoughts. They hadn’t made him feel stupid or wrong and also hadn’t ganged up on either himself or Blaine either.

He laid his head down in his arms and closed his eyes.

* * *

Shane came in just before curfew, having fallen asleep out there. The second he walked back into the house, there was the sound of yelling and something whizzed by his ear. Josh ran over and grabbed him, pulling him quickly up the stairs and shielding him. Shane felt something small strike his back but he had no time to think about it before Josh quickly pulled him into one of the bathrooms.

“What the fuck,” Shane asked, confused.

“Nerf war,” Josh was breathing heavily but laughing, “Reinforced nerf war, actually.”

At Shane’s blank look, Josh caught his breath and explained, “It’s been a while but I get the twins have grown restless being on house arrest. We’ve found ways to make the nerf darts more deadly - add push-pins or metal pellets, that kind of thing. As long as it can shoot from a nerf gun, it’s legal. Our guns are modified too. Ryan only lets us use them during these battles, otherwise, he locks them away.”

“What the fuck,” Shane said, making Josh laugh more.

“Here,” Josh handed him his own gun and a handful of darts, “You’ll need this even if you’re not in the battle. You will be shot at if you try to leave here.”

“Is anywhere safe?” Shane asked.

“Nope,” Josh grinned at him, “Only outside the dorm, but it’s almost curfew and we’re essentially stuck here. If you want to be safe, you have to barricade your door and hope it’s enough to stop someone. The war stops at midnight, but it’ll start again at six on the dot so it’s best to be prepared.”

“And this happens a lot?” Shane asked, loading a couple of the darts into the gun. He never really played with nerf before but knew how to shoot toy guns so could at least get a couple of shots in.

Josh shrugged, “First time this year. We had a few last year, it’s really fun but nearly everyone gets hurt. Last year, Charlie rigged one of his guns to have a t-shirt cannon on it, and he’d shoot hockey pucks at us. Peter had a black eye for weeks, it’s was nasty. I haven’t seen it so far tonight, so maybe someone got rid of it.”

Despite this, Josh was grinning. He didn’t mind he’d given his only gun to Shane. He pointed to it, “It’s automatic, that one, just hold the trigger down and you can shoot a few at a time. It holds six, so I’d load those now before you step out. They know we’re in here, so we probably only have a minute left before they come for us.”

“Is Blaine…” Shane started.

Josh laughed, “He’s a good shot, your brother. Are you going to play, or head upstairs? I’ll cover you if you’re going up, otherwise, you’re on your own.”

Shane thought about it for a few seconds. It sounded fun, even if it was batshit insane and he found himself nodding.

“Good man,” Josh clapped him on the back then said, “Oh and one other thing - everyone is fair game and no punishments are dealt. Ryan’s playing as well, and we don’t even get in trouble if we hit Reed.”

“Why would you hit Reed,” Shane felt himself frowning but Josh smiled, “Reed has the option to hide away, just like the rest of us.”

And with that, Josh opened the door and ran back out in the hall, hoping to find an abandoned gun before his fellow Windsors saw he was now unarmed. Shane peeked out, his finger on the trigger of the nerf gun. There were some boys in the hall but most were all downstairs, since it was easier to play down there, and they didn’t pay him any mind.

It was absolute mayhem - the floor was littered, and it really did look like a bomb had gone off. Some, like Drew and Colby, had nerf magazines and were firing wildly, most of their darts missing but they’d get some victims, but in return for being so open, they’d have a few boys aiming directly at them in retaliation.

A yell from Luke as he was nearly hit in the fact by a pellet-loaded nerf just resulted in Charlie yelling, “Next time I won’t miss, Baldwin!”

Shane ducked behind the couch, only to find Blaine and Reed there as well, crouched and watching. Shane instinctively lowered his gun, but Reed shook his head, “Don’t let your guard down.”

“This is mad,” Shane said and Blaine agreed with him, “It’s kind of fun though.”

Shane gave him a look then decided to just say to Reed, “You’re playing, too?”

Reed looked embarrassed, a blush on his cheeks as he said, “I can be fun sometimes.”

Shane started to stammer, but then the sound of firecrackers went off right behind them and all three boys ran out from their cover while the twins cackled, shooting rapidly in their directions.

* * *

The second it turned to midnight, Ryan screamed, “MIDNIGHT!” and in a single moment, the house fell silent.

Shane sprawled on the second-floor landing, trying to figure out what hurt worse - his stomach from laughing so hard, or the blossoming bruise on the left side of his jaw.

Downstairs, the boys all lowered their weapons. They may be a house of delinquents, but the rules of the nerf wars were respected. The smoke bomb Satoru had set off a few minutes ago was still in the air, and Todd tripped on a foam puck on the floor but was caught by Isaac before he could hurt himself more.

Ryan himself was breathing hard, holding the coveted hockey-puck shooter that he’d confiscated off Charlie. He and Charlie had wrestled for it all night, mostly targeting each other but Ryan had come out on top after pinning Charlie to the floor and grappling it back off him.

“Clean up and go to bed,” Ryan said after a few moments, “And if I h-”

“We know,” Evan said.

“If you hear a single nerf being reloaded,” Ethan continued.

“We’ll be in trouble,” Evan finished.

Ryan nodded at them, “Good. Now get this place tidied up.”

Everyone pitched in, mostly because they wanted the best ammo for the next day and this was the best way to get them. The place was almost back to normal in half an hour, though there were a considerable amount of holes in the walls and a broken window in the kitchen that Ryan now had to make up an excuse for. Until it could be fixed, he duct-taped some cardboard to it. No doubt there would be more damage over the weekend.

Shane and Josh headed upstairs to the third floor, while Blaine was finally allowed back in his own. David had gone into hiding at one point and had refused to let Blaine take refuge there, though he had apologized for it - he just didn’t know if it was a trick or not. Blaine had instead barricaded himself in one of the other rooms, at least just to catch his breath and re-load.

The boys slept well that night, but the weekend wars waged on the next morning and continued until ten on Sunday night, when Ryan declared them done. There were no winners, only losers. At least during the day, most spent time outside of the dorm to avoid being attacked further, only the twins hell-bent on making use of the time. Ryan had almost called the entire thing off when Colby handed Evan a flame-thrower, but luckily for everyone else, the thing didn’t work and the three tall blonds had to go back to other methods.

Micah thought they were all absolutely crazy when Shane told him about it before classes on Monday, frowning at the bruises and marks on Shane’s skin. He traced his fingers over a particularly deep bruise on Shane’s wrist then gave it a kiss, making Shane smile. Shane didn’t mind the attention at all.

Shane hadn’t told Micah about his fight with Blaine, and by the time the weekend ended, it had been mostly forgotten due to the chaos of the nerf war. The two brothers had barely talked, but they’d still team up to defend each other when inside the house. Shane found himself protecting Reed the most all weekend, seeking him out specifically so he could take the hits for the shorter boy, and they’d locked themselves in Reed’s room on Saturday night. Reed had insisted that it was too dangerous for Shane to leave so they spent some time watching movies until Ryan screamed out the time at midnight, and Shane reluctantly had to leave.

“I wonder if Hanover’s quiet,” Micah said idly, which made Shane laugh. Micah was always telling him about the noise over in Stuart - of Logan, Julian and Logan screaming at each other, of Marcus and Laurie throwing fits and having meltdowns, of the nights that were never ever quiet because certain boys never slept.

“Maybe, but I don’t think I’d want to be there,” Shane said, “I had a lot of fun this weekend. I wish you’d been there.”

“Pass,” Micah said, “It sounds painful and unnecessary.”

“My bruises aren’t sexy?” Shane pouted.

Micah laughed and pushed him lightly then pulled him into a kiss, the two melting into it.

“Come over after tutoring,” Micah said once they broke apart, slightly blushing as he adds, “I miss you.”

Shane smiled, “Yeah, I’ll be there. We have to find more time for each other, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Micah shrugged, “I get it. If we can’t sneak into Stuart, we’ll find somewhere else.”

“Oh?” Shane raised an eyebrow, teasing, “Sneak into an empty classroom? Out here until the sun?”

Micah rolled his eyes and said, “Shut up, before I change my mind.”

Shane laughed and they shared one final kiss then headed off to class.


	11. More Auditions

The moment class let out on Tuesday, the Warblers and their hopeful schoolmates hurried to Warblers hall. It was Blaine’s first real day of being in the group, though he knew it would be anything but normal. Shane was still giving him the cold shoulder - the interactions during the nerf war seemed to only be a moment in time since Shane didn’t care to be around Blaine once it ended.

Blaine was hoping that Shane would be accepted into the group, so they could start to repair the damage done between them. If Shane didn’t get in, Blaine wasn’t sure how long it would take until Shane started to trust him again.

“Okay boys, settle down,” Harvey called out over the chattering of his students, “I have a couple of announcements to make before we begin the auditions. First - welcome back Evan and Ethan. I would hope that doesn’t happen again but…” he trailed off, and some of the boys snickered.

Evan and Ethan just grinned.

“And we’ve unfortunately lost Sean as one of us,” Medel continued, and the snickering stopped. “He has decided to focus on his studies for a while.”

Everyone knew it wasn’t the full truth - that Sean just didn’t want to be around the twins anymore. While it had been mostly an accident, he hadn’t felt comfortable with the idea of being around them since the accident.

“We’re hoping he’ll come back soon,” Medel said, “But in either case - Blaine will be taking Sean’s spot in the songs we’ve already done. Which brings us to today’s auditions.”

The buzz started again as the boys looked to the three hopefuls - Shane, Josh, and Bailey. Nobody, not even Logan as the lead soloist, knew how many spots would be open. Even if all three got a lot of votes, the two choir teachers had the final say and could not accept them.

Bailey and Shane looked nervous, while Josh looked confident. It must have been that reason as to why Harvey indicated at him and said, “Joshua, you may go first. Bailey and Shane, find a seat.”

As the two younger boys sat, Wes grinned at Josh and said, “You got this, dude.” which got him a glare from Harvey but they all settled down soon.

Josh sang his song to no music accompanying himself - using only his voice as his strength, and it was incredible. Even the Windsor boys who had heard him sing before hadn’t known that Josh was _that_ good. At the very same time, both Logan and Blaine sat forward in amazement, captivated by the singing.

Harvey and Medel shared a look between themselves as the song ended, though they knew better than to let their opinions show to the other boys, might it sway their judgement.

Josh grinned once he was done, the Warblers all clapping for him. Medel gave them half a minute then called over the noise, “Okay, settle down again. Thank you, Joshua, please find a seat for now. Shane?”

Blaine looked at his brother, and Shane looked more nervous now. Blaine gave him a thumbs up, but Shane didn’t seem to react to it, just standing and speaking quietly with Harvey and Medel for a moment, handing them a CD. Medel put the disc into the CD player, and after clarifying which track it was, she nodded for Shane to stand upfront.

“You got this,” Blaine told, and Shane looked at him for a moment, gave a nervous smile, and waited. Medel clicked the play button, and the instrumentals began.

Shane sang his song well, a touch quiet at first but he got his confidence back quickly. He danced along to the song, and it strengthened his performance, proving to everyone that he could sing _and_ dance at the same time. It was a much faster song than the one Josh had done, and he was out of breath by the time it came to an end, but he was smiling. The Warblers clapped for him as Medel handed back the CD.

“Another great performance,” she said as she motioned for Shane to sit again. He sat this time in a new seat, beside Reed who whispered to him, “That was really good.” Shane couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

“Finally, last but not least, Bailey.” Harvey indicated for the boy to come up front, and Bailey did. “I understand Nick is helping you out?” Harvey clarified, and Bailey nodded. Nick joined him, taking up one of the guitars from the rack so he could play for Bailey.

The last song of the auditions was performed, and Bailey sang a song that Blaine didn’t recognize, but wasn’t an original since he could see some of the other Warblers mouthing along with the words at some parts. It was more of an indie song but it fit Bailey’s voice so well, and Bailey smiled finished after singing the last note.

Another round of claps and encouragements from the Warblers as Nick put the guitar back and Bailey stood, knowing they’d have to leave the room now.

“Three unique, but great, performances,” Harvey addressed his students, “I’d like you three to leave the room while we take the time to vote.”

Josh, Shane, and Bailey looked at each other and headed back out of Warbler’s hall. While the two Tipton brothers took a seat each, Shane paced up and down the hall, too full of nervous energy to sit.

“You were both great,” Shane told them and Josh beamed at him, “You were incredible as well, Shane!”

“Do you think we’ll all get in?” Bailey asked, trying not to let his worries show.

“Yeah,” Josh nodded with full confidence, “There’s no way we can’t - we all did great.”

They had to wait much longer than Blaine had since there was more of them that the established Warbler’s needed to vote for, and Harvey always double-counted each vote. Finally, before Shane managed to wear a hole in the carpet, the doors opened and Medel smiled at the three.

“Come in, boys.”

Josh and Bailey shared a look, and Shane mumbled mostly to himself, “We got this, we got this.”

Standing up in front of the Warbler’s now felt stressful - knowing their fellow students had all the say in this choice, and this might be their only chance for a while to join them. Looks of encouragement passed between each group, but the boys themselves said nothing - they also didn’t know the results, and soon all looked to Harvey.

“Well,” Harvey stated, “I know nobody wants to hear me do a speech, so I’ll leave that for the end. Let’s go by order of performance. Now boys, hold your congratulations until I’ve announced all three decisions.” Harvey looked to his students, some of which nodded.

Josh stood a little straighter, only now feeling a touch of anxiety. If he didn’t get in, he’d feel so humiliated in front of all his friends.

“Joshua….” Harvey paused for dramatic effect then gave a single nod, “Welcome to the Warbler’s.”

There were claps, but the other boys stayed in their seats, as per Harvey’s request. Josh grinned in relief, looking so happy and proud of himself that he turned to the two choir teachers and said, “Thank you! Thank you so much.”Medel laughed, “Thank your fellow schoolmates.”

Josh just grinned back at his friends and remained standing between Bailey and Shane.

“Next, Shane Anderson,” Harvey continued on.

Shane and Blaine both held their breaths, and Blaine crossed his fingers and mumbled to himself, “Come on, Shane.”

Another pause for dramatic effect, but for Shane, it felt like it stretched onto eternity until Harvey gave a smile and said, “Welcome.”

Shane felt like his knees were going to buckle, but Josh was gripping his shoulders and shaking him in delight, “Good job!”

Shane found Blaine in the crowd, and his face broke into a big smile. Blaine smiled right back at him, wanting to rush up and pull his brother into a big hug but he remained seated for now. Shane then next looked to Reed who was grinning at him, giving him two thumbs-up.

“Okay, settle,” Harvey reminded his students, “We still have one vote left.”

A blanket of hush fell over the hall as everyone waited for the final result. Would Bailey be their newest Warbler, or would Harvey and Medel have decided that three in a week was just enough?

“I regret to inform everyone…”

Bailey’s heart sank.

“That we all have a lot of work to do in order to teach our four newest Warbler’s all our songs. Congratulations, Bailey.”

And that was all the permission everyone needed to leap from their seats and rush up to congratulate Shane, Josh, and Bailey. Medel laughed as she watched the three new boys disappear into a crowd of hugs and blazers; pleased to see even the more reserved members like Logan and Reed were right there, laughing and giving praise.

* * *

It took the boys a long time to settle after that, so they didn’t end up practicing any of their numbers. Instead, they’d watched past performances, did vocal exercises, and discussed ways to enhance their numbers now that they have new club members.

Blaine was going to head back towards Windsor with the rest of his friends, but Logan reached out and grabbed his arm lightly before he could and motioned for him to walk with him instead. Blaine glanced over at David, who looked back and shrugged, so Blaine nodded at Logan.

“Your brother looked happy,” Logan said as he and Blaine started idly walking out of the building together.

Blaine nodded, “He did - he really needed that. Maybe now he’ll stop hating me.”

“Oh?” Logan raised an eyebrow, green eyes looking into Blaine’s.

“Uh yeah,” Blaine shrugged, trying to act casually, “He’s been pissed off about me getting to audition first, he thought it’d ruin his own chances of getting in. And after the exams… and dance…”

“Ahh,” Logan smiled, “I see, just brother jealousy stuff.”

“Do you have brothers?” Blaine asked. He was starting to realize how little he knew about Logan.

Logan chuckled, “No, I’m an only child, and even they can barely stand me. Hell, my mother walked out and I haven’t seen her since I was about six.”

Blaine didn’t know what to say to that, so he said nothing. There was a moment of silence between them until Logan said, “Hey, I know you’ve just gotten into the Warbler’s but do you think you’ll want to join anything else?”

“I’m not sure,” Blaine was glad for the topic change, “Maybe a sport?”

“I can help with that,” Logan smiled at him, and Blaine felt himself blush slightly. Logan really was gorgeous, and it was hard not to resist his charms. “I only do fencing, but my friend Derek’s on a bunch of sports. We can get you on a team.”

“I’ve never tried fencing,” Blaine admits, “I think it looks cool though.”

Logan chuckles and suddenly diverts their course, nudging Blaine to walk the other way with him, “I’ll take you to the gym, show you what it’s all about. We can always do with more fencers for Dalton, St. Patrick’s been kicking our asses lately.”

Blaine had heard all about the rival school - how they were more sports-based, and Dalton always had to fight hard to win against them. Dalton did better academically but for the competitive ones, the rivalry was only on the field.

Despite other people being in the gym, Logan spent the rest of the afternoon before dinner showing Blaine all about the fencing team at Dalton. Blaine agreed by the end that it looked fun and he’ll give it a go. The fencing team would meet in a couple of days, and Logan would put in a good word for him.

* * *

Back at Windsor later, Charlie raised an eyebrow, “Logan sure is doing a lot for you.”

“You guys do a lot for me, too,” Blaine pointed out, staring at the TV instead of them, “He’s just being nice.”

“Logan isn’t nice,” David points out, “Not without a motive.”

“That’s not fair,” Blaine frowns, “Just because he’s from Stuart.”

Charlie bats away Evan’s hands from trying to mess with his hair, "Nah, that’s not it, Logan’s just got temper problems that are unchecked.”

Blaine gave him an incredulous look, “We’re in a _reformatory_ school.”

Evan and Ethan both burst out laughing at that. Ethan grins over at Blaine, “Logan has a special interest in you.”

“We’d know, we were best friends with him for years,” Evan said.

“You were?” Blaine frowned. This was the first he’s heard of any of them being friends with any of the Stuart boys.

Ethan and Evan left Charlie alone, instead moving to sit beside Blaine instead, which made him nervous but not as much as he’d been when he first came to this school. He just had to put up with them touching him and speaking in unison or finishing each other sentences, which got less creepy over time.

“We were all New York babies,” Ethan said.

“Derek too, but we didn’t hang out with him as often. His parents “didn’t trust us” for some reason,” Evan added.

David snorted but the boys ignored him.

”Why aren’t you friends now?” Blaine asked.

“We came to Dalton and Logan distanced himself,” Ethan shrugged, “But we’d been losing him for a while before that anyway. Evan and I aren’t saints, but sometimes Logan went too far, even for us. We were having fun causing problems, but Logan wasn’t - he was driven by this anger inside him.”

Evan started to play with Blaine’s hand as he continued, “We tried to reach out a few times but he’d tell us to fuck off. We stopped trying when he realized he had Derek and Julian to pull him back from the literal edge.”

At Blaine’s confused look, Ethan said, “He’d sometimes just sit on the rooftop edge of Stuart for hours at night. Han would watch through his cameras to make sure he didn’t actually jump. Eventually Julian and Derek learned to look up there to find him.”

“Oh,” Blaine said quietly. Nobody else attempted to make any jokes about it.

“Hard to be friends if he doesn’t want it,” Evan said with a smile, and Blaine couldn’t tell for sure, but the twin didn’t look like he was actually happy about it at all.

“So yeah, we know him,” Ethan then continued. He wasn’t holding Blaine’s other hand, just watching as his brother was softly tracing over Blaine’s palm like he was trying to read it, “And that’s how we know he definitely likes you.”

Blaine shook his head, “No he doesn’t, he’s just being nice.”

“Nah, they have a point,” Charlie pointed out, looking away from the football match, “Logan doesn’t do that shit unless he’s got an interest. He’ll help out Derek and Julian, and that’s about as far as his generosity extends.”

“Should I be worried?” Blaine asked. His feelings about Logan were complicated even before all this new information.

“Nobody can tell you what to do,” David said kindly, “Just know that Logan can be unpredictable, so if you’re going to be friends with him or… anything more, then just don’t let your guard down.”

“And know that I have a bat if he hurts you,” Charlie said with a grin but it didn’t make Blaine smile.

Evan finally lets go of Blaine’s hand, “You should join fencing though, you’d be good at it. And if you ever get mad at Logan, you can just…” he makes a stabbing motion and _that_ makes Blaine crack a small smile.


	12. Tickets and Jude

Blaine made the fencing team. Then a week later, he also made the football team with Logan’s help despite Logan not being on the team. By that point, everyone in the school knew of Logan’s affections towards the curly-haired newcomer… except for Blaine himself.

“I don’t know if he’s just oblivious or what,” Wes was complaining one lunchtime, rolling his eyes over at where Blaine was sitting with the three Stuart friends instead of with them, “But I’m getting tired of Logan hanging around.”

“We should be happy for them,” David pointed out kindly, “Blaine’s happy and Logan isn’t causing us any new problems.”

“It was supposed to be me,” Josh said miserably, head in his arms on the table, food pushed aside completely as he pouted. Wes went to throw a piece of chicken at him but David stopped him then chuckled, rubbing Josh’s back a little, “You’ll survive this, Josh. Is there no other boy here you’d wanna date instead?”

“No, you’re all ugly,” Josh whined and buried his face deeper into his arms. David laughed then said, “Blaine and Logan aren’t actually dating - maybe Blaine doesn’t want to, and he just sees Logan as a friend? He’ll tell Logan that, Logan will get over his crush and you’ll get your chance again?”

Josh just mumbled non-words and David chuckled, removing his hand from Josh’s back and started to eat again. He’d let Josh mope for a while, knowing he’ll bounce back from it during their next few classes. Josh didn’t often show his jealousy or any sort of negative emotion, and when he did, it never lasted long.

✽ ❋ ✽ ❋ ✽ ❋ ✽ ❋ ✽ ❋

“I’m not going to see that fucking movie,” Logan was arguing with Julian, “Stop asking already.”

“Is it a bad movie?” Blaine asked innocently, and Julian smirked at him, “I don’t make bad movies.”

“Then why aren’t you still an actor, dummy?” Derek elbowed his friend to show he was just teasing but Julian scowled at him, “I’m just on a break. I don’t see any of you holding up jobs.”

Julian then turned back to look across at Blaine, and he rolled his eyes, “These two didn’t like my methods, they don’t understand how the industry works.”

“You almost killed yourself,” Derek reminded him.

“And Logan does that every week and I don’t see any-” Julian started but Logan almost launched himself over at the table at his friend, but Derek put his hands in between to prevent them from strangling each other in the middle of the crowded cafeteria.

Julian sighed and said, addressing Blaine again, “It’s a good movie, not my best but I worked hard on it. These two are just acting like little girls about it.”

This devolved into more of an argument between the three sophomores, and Blaine sat there quietly while they all yelled over each other. Sitting with the Stuart boys was a very different experience to sitting with his Windsor friends - it was possibly just as loud, but there was more venom from the boys in red, while the vibes from his friends were more over-the-top excitement and had a lot more laughter.

When the lunch bell rang, only Blaine and Derek had actually finished their lunch - Julian hadn’t brought more than a small fruit bowl to the table and Logan hadn’t touched his half-filled plate of food. Blaine noticed Derek silently putting Logan’s food in a go-to box and putting it in his own backpack, though he tossed Julian’s fruit away. When Derek caught Blaine watching him, he shrugged and said, “He has to eat at some point.”

It was about the most Derek had ever said to him - Derek tended to talk over him or let the others answer for him. Blaine had a feeling that Derek didn’t like him, though he never made it too obvious.

When class let out, Derek and Julian had headed back to their house to unwind for a while, eventually deciding to play chess since it had been a while. Julian had lost last time and had been wanting a rematch for a while, but Derek had been so busy with his schoolwork that he’d kept blowing his friend off. 

They were almost finished the match, with Julian close to getting the win when Logan had stormed in, check-mated Derek, and then slammed the board to the ground and stormed off. Derek and Julian shot each other a look, and immediately stormed after their friend and it became a screaming match.

The other Stuart’s fled, knowing they would absolutely be caught in the crossfire if they didn’t make themselves scarce, and let the three battle it out in the common room. It didn’t turn physical, though Julian was close to punching the tall blond, they were all screaming until they were red in the face.

Julian and Derek were getting pissed off at Logan’s moods lately, especially when it came to Blaine and how much Blaine didn’t seem to reciprocate Logan’s feelings. When Logan was depressed, it was a lot easier to deal with, but the anger made them angry, too. Talking to Logan about it never seemed to help - they’ve given advice, were nice to the new boy when Logan invited him to sit with them, whatever they could without actually getting involved.

But now Julian at least had reached his limit. He went up to his room, and Derek began to calm Logan down on his own thinking Julian had left completely, but not a minute later, Julian flies back downstairs and shoves two pieces of paper right at Logan’s face, “Fucking take him on a date, do something real for once.”

Logan looked at the tickets, quiet for a moment then asked suspiciously why Julian was doing this. Julian’s fists were clenched at his side - and if he didn’t have a lifetime of acting experience, he may have teared up, but instead he just angrily replied, “Because I hate him but I hate your attitude worse.”

Logan kept staring at the tickets then a smile crept onto his face and he said, “Thanks Jules!” and he turned and left without another word. Like they hadn’t just come to blows in the common room - his bad mood had just evaporated and it left Derek with whiplash.

Derek stared wordlessly at Julian for a long moment then asked, “Why did you give them to him?”

Julian kept staring at the closed door where Logan had just walked out of, “I’m just tired of all of it, D. I’m tired.”

Derek raised an eyebrow but Julian turned on his heel and walked off as well, pulling his sunglasses down over his eyes. Derek sighed, feeling caught in the middle once more.

* * *

Blaine accepted the date, though he’d stuttered his way through it, face bright red and fumbling on his words. Logan had found the reaction adorable, but was glad Blaine said yes - maybe it meant that Blaine actually did like him back, or maybe he was just too scared to say no?

Poor David had to be the one to listen as Blaine didn’t stop talking about it all evening - and his studying suffered for it. Eventually, around nine, David just groaned and said, “I’m so happy for you, I am, but I need to get this calculus work done.”

“Oh,” Blaine blinked then smiled, “Sorry.”

David laughed, “It’s okay, I’m glad you’re happy. Just be careful, yeah?”

“Okay,” Blaine nods then glances at the time, wondering if it wasn’t too late to call Ruth and Jude. He’d been calling every few days, although he didn’t always get to see Jude. Jude had started physical therapy and was leaving his hospital room more, and Ruth was going home every few days for a proper break, but Blaine liked to talk to her anyway.

She felt like a maternal figure he didn’t have anymore. Blaine had spoken to Marlene once since arriving at Dalton - Shane hadn’t done it yet and didn’t want to - and it had been a tense, short conversation, but Ruth was always happy to talk to them and Micah as well.

Blaine sent a text to Ruth asking if he had permission to call, and she replied with confirmation a moment later. Blaine attached his earphones to his phone so he wouldn’t bother David as much and sat on his bed to make the call. Ever since he got over his fear of seeing Jude, he’d been more comfortable with sharing everything with the two Whittaker’s though he tended to leave out things that might upset Jude.

“Hi Blaine,” Ruth answered, taking a moment to turn the camera on so they could see each other, “Everything okay, sweetheart?”

“Yeah,” Blaine smiled back, “Sorry for calling so late.”

“It’s never too late,” Ruth told him, “I was going to call you all tomorrow - Jude’s had some good news.”

“Oh?” Blaine sat up more, “Can I know now? I can pass it along to Shane and Micah for you.”

Ruth laughed a little and pointed the camera around the room to show Blaine the walls. Where normally there were a lot of Jude’s things - photos, a few posters from home, letters from people wishing him well, it was all blank now.

“Is he moving?” Blaine asked.

“He is, he’s coming home,” Ruth says and Blaine can hear the happiness in her voice.

Blaine was completely surprised. He knew that Jude was getting better, but Ruth had said that he’d still be in the hospital for a while, though that was a few weeks ago she said that.

“Already?” Blaine asked, and he noticed that Jude wasn’t in the bed so he must be out of the room for a moment.

“The day after tomorrow,” Ruth turns the camera back to herself, “We’ve had a lot of meetings with his team this week and there’s no reason to keep him in the hospital, there’s nothing they can do here for him that we can’t do elsewhere. We’re going to have his therapists come to the house, or I’ll take him to the outpatient clinic. I’ve had contractors in all week to make sure the house is ready for him to come home - we put a couple of ramps in, and moved his bedroom downstairs, and rails in the bathroom, that kind of thing. The hospital approved it earlier today.”

“I’m so happy for you,” Blaine felt himself starting to tear up, “And for Jude. How is he feeling about it?”

“I think he’s happy,” Ruth says, “He’s been asking for home a lot more.”

Jude still wasn’t speaking a lot, but he was picking up words quickly and the occupational therapists had made him a folder of pictures so he could point at what he wanted, when he wasn’t able to get the words out himself. ‘Home’ had been one of the early words that Jude had spoken after his accident, often he cried it when he was in pain or upset, just wanting to be out of the hospital.

“But Blaine, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about as well,” Ruth said carefully, “We’re not going to stay here. While I love my son coming home, the people who hurt him are still out there. They still haven’t got any leads, and that scares me. We’re going to be moving soon - in the next couple of months if I can get things sorted out by then.”

“Oh,” Blaine was quiet for a moment then asked, “Where do you think you’ll go? Nebraska?”

He knew that Ruth had family there since Jude had been there the summer before freshman year - before they had met him.

“No, we’re actually thinking Ohio.”

Blaine was quiet and he frowned, “That’s where we are.”

“I know, honey. I think Jude would like to be able to see you all again.”

There was a long pause between them, and Blaine didn’t realize he was crying until he tried to speak and all that came out was a loud sob.

“Oh sweetheart,” Ruth tried to console him. David also looked over from his desk, looking concerned at his friend but he could only hear half of the conversation so he had no idea what was going on.

“It’s not a done deal,” Ruth warned, “I’m looking into it and seeing if it’s even feasible to move Jude that far. Jude coming home is going to be a test to see how well he copes, and if he shows good progress then we’ll get permission to transfer his care into facilities in Ohio.”

Blaine wiped his eyes and whispered, “I hope that can work out.”

“We do, too,” Ruth tried to smile but she was crying as well. “I won’t be a lot of help for you boys, but maybe having Jude close by will help you all somehow.”

Blaine nodded - that would be nice, possibly being able to see Jude every once in a while in person, actually hold his hand and talk to him, not through a phone camera. He knew Blaine and Micah would be equally as excited.

“Does Jude know?” Blaine asked.

Ruth shook her head, “I’ve explained to him that we might move again after he gets home, but I haven’t told him where. It’s best not to overwhelm him with information - even a lot of good information can set his recovery back a step - he tends to fixate on some things and will ignore others. He gets upset when things don’t happen immediately or exactly as he pictures, and his pictures aren’t always very clear.”

Blaine understood then asked, still sniffling, “Where is he now?”

“They’ve taken him to the small dining room around the corner for dinner,” Ruth explains, “They are getting him to socialize more. He should be back in a few minutes though, do you want to wait until he’s here?”

Blaine nodded eagerly, so he and Ruth just continued to talk on the phone for another ten minutes until a carer wheeled Jude back into the room. He looked exhausted but his eyes lit up when he saw Blaine was on the phone. They kept Jude in his wheelchair, Ruth saying to the carer that she’ll get her son back into bed after the phone-call was over.

“Hi Judie,” Blaine greeted softly, and laughed when Jude scowled at the nickname, “Sorry, sorry.”

“B-Blaine,” Jude whispered then frowned as he couldn’t think of the other words he wanted to say.

“I missed you,” Blaine told him, hoping that was what Jude wanted to say. Jude nodded, confirming his suspicions and he repeated, “Miss you.”

His speaking was getting so much better, though it was still clear how much he was suffering as well. He spoke so slowly, thinking about every syllable and how to make the right sound with his mouth. But it was major progress from a few weeks earlier when he couldn’t so much as comprehend language.

Blaine started to tell Jude, and also Ruth, about how he was going to get to leave campus that weekend to go to a concert with a friend. He hadn’t told them about Logan properly yet, he always felt strong guilt when he brought up Logan and tonight was no different now that he knew it would be an actual date. He explained how he was going to have to apply for time away, and that they’d have a chaperone and he couldn’t get in any trouble at all until the concert or he’d be forbidden. But he was excited and Jude smiled a couple of times though he didn’t speak - Ruth did most of the talking for them.

Blaine also congratulated Jude on getting to go home, and Jude smiled, “Home.” Blaine grinned at him, “Yeah, I bet that’s exciting - must be nice to not wake up every few hours.”

Jude didn’t reply to that, not quite understanding what Blaine meant about the nurses checking him every few hours, but Ruth spoke and said, “I think we’re going to like full nights of sleep.”

Blaine laughed then said, “I’ll tell Shane and Micah the good news - maybe we can all call you after you’re home and you can show us your new bedroom.”

Jude nodded, “Miss you.”

Blaine smiled softly at him, “Do you miss me, or do you miss home?”

“Home,” Jude answered with a frown, then a moment later he said, “and B-Blaine.”

Blaine laughed, “I was almost offended for a second, Jude.”

Jude just smiled, and they continued talking for a few minutes until Ruth said, “I’m going to get him up into his bed for a rest. Will you give Micah and Shane our love?”

“I will,” Blaine waved at Jude, “Have a good sleep, Jude, I’ll call again soon.”

The call ended and Blaine took out his earphones, and David immediately asked, “All good?”

“Oh,” Blaine looked over. He’d completely forgotten David had been there, “Sorry, I hope I didn’t distract you.”

“The sobbing did,” David raised an eyebrow but he looked kind, “Are you okay?”

“Ruth wants to move her and Jude here to Ohio,” Blaine told him. David knew the whole story about Jude, and Blaine had been happy to show him photos and kept him semi-updated on Jude’s progress. David didn’t seem to tell anyone, since nobody else asked Blaine about his friend but it was nice to have someone to talk to that didn’t actually know Jude personally.

“What!? That’s awesome! So he’s coming home?”

“Yeah, he’s going back to his own house this week, then she wants to move in a few months if it’s possible. I’ll be able to see him again.”

“I’m happy for you, dude,” David grinned, “And for Jude. You better go tell Shane before he finds out himself and gets pissed.”

Blaine laughed and nodded, getting off his bed, “Yeah, okay.”


End file.
